


I will be POPULAR

by snekwami



Category: BoBoiBoy (Cartoon), Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Fang (the alien one not the crocodile) is just a huge tsundere, Fanginette, Slow Burn, Well this is the first time I'm writing a crossover, idiots to lovers, it's cute leave me alone, this is NOT one of those salty crossovers, this is just for fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 93,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23484301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snekwami/pseuds/snekwami
Summary: AU where everything is the same but Jagged Stone's pet crocodile Fang gets swapped with Fang from BoBoiBoy Galaxy. Jagged Stone now has an emo teen alien sidekick, and somewhere out in space, there's casually a literal crocodile going on space missions.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Fang (BoBoiBoy)
Comments: 82
Kudos: 36





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, this arose from two separate things. First of all, being a longterm Miraculer, whenever I started talking about Fang from BoBoiBoy Galaxy, people would keep accidentally assuming I meant the crocodile from ML. And then I thought it would be a hilarious idea if they swapped places.
> 
> As for the Fanginette, uh... listen, Fang plays the guitar and also knows Mandarin??? He's made for Marinette, good lord, how and why did I get so invested in this cracky crossover ship. I can't get it out of my head, it's going to kill me if I don't write it. Be prepared for much tsundere-ness though.
> 
> Disclaimer: I've seen a lot of crossover fics recently (especially ones that ship Marinette with people from other media) which are full of salt directed towards Alya, Adrien, Lila, the classmates, etc. Well THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE!!! This is NOT a salt fic, this is not a spite fic. I'm writing this because it's a fun and interesting idea, and I'm not going to be demonizing or purposefully mischaracterizing any of those characters in this fic. The entire class is frickin awesome and so are Kagami and Luka. Any salt in this fic is just Fang being a salty whiny brat like he is in the show, and he'll grow out of it, I promise.

“I have a mission for you to do,” Captain Kaizo said, not even bothering to say hello first. “You’re going back to Earth and getting some more power spheras.”

“There are power spheras on Earth?” Fang asked.

“Well there are more humans with power watches at least. Paris has superheroes now apparently, so you’d better go and get those power watches off those ungrateful earthlings before they mess up their planet with their incompetence.”

Another undercover mission on Earth? Fang rolled his eyes, already not looking forward to this. “Fine, Captain.”

“You’ll be going to the city of Paris this time. Don’t screw up.”

“What if the same thing happens that happened last time?” Fang asked, thinking about the previous time he had been sent to Earth on a mission like this.

“Why, what happened? I don’t remember…”

Pffff, of course, Kaizo never bothered to remember anything to do with Fang. “Last time the superheroes were actually _good_ at their job, so we ended up leaving the power watches with them.”

Kaizo frowned. “Oh, you mean those friends of yours? Well of course we left the power watches with them. They’re far more competent than you are.”

Ugh, ouch. Fang did _not_ like being compared with his human friends. “So what if that happens again?”

“Hmmm…” Kaizo thought for a few seconds. “Fine. I’ll drop you off in Paris for 8 months, and in the meantime you can observe these superheroes and decide for yourself whether they deserve to keep their power watches or not, and then when I pick you up you can make your choice.”

Fang leapt to his feet. “8 months???”

“You heard me. 8 months.”

“But… but…”

“Is there a problem, Fang?”

Kaizo was giving him the Death Glare – that “listen to what I say or you’ll regret it” Death Glare. Fang slowly sank back into his seat. “No…”

“Good.” The Death Glare receded, thankfully.

“But can I at least tell people that I’m an alien this time? I don’t like having to pretend I’m one of those humans… and I don’t want to hide my powers either…”

“Do what you want, I don’t care, just don’t cause too much trouble. I’ve got better things to be doing with my life than micromanaging your mission for you.”

Oh, thank goodness! If Fang could show off his own powers at these Earthlings, that was bound to make him a lot more popular with them! And maybe his popularity would fare better than it had done back in Pulau Rintis, where he was always overshadowed by his stupid friends…

“And let me know if you see any potential sidekicks for me,” Kaizo added.

“Uh… what?”

“Lahap has been very busy recently and I need a new sidekick. Someone competent, I mean, not like you. So keep an eye out.”

“Very well Captain…”

“Now go pack some clothes and brush up on your French. We’ll be arriving on Earth soon.”

Fang nodded and opened up Duolingo. Jeez… 8 whole months on Earth? Why did Kaizo like to see him suffer so much? He didn’t want to have to spend 8 months away from his friends while they were off having actual fun adventures together!

Well whatever… hopefully he’d make some new friends…

-

Captain Kaizo landed the spaceship at the airport, right beside some rather fancy-looking private jet that had arrived just a few moments before them. He commanded Fang to follow him outside.

Literally the first thing they saw was a crocodile.

A real actual crocodile, trotting over to them right on the runway.

There were a few humans there too, staring up at the spaceship in awe. Well yeah, that made sense – humans did tend to be all “OOOH ALIEN SPACESHIP!!!” if they were from anywhere but Pulau Rintis, where such a sight was commonplace.

Kaizo, on the other hand, was staring down at the crocodile with a rare genuine smile on his face. “Perfect sidekick material!”

“You want that thing as your sidekick?!” Fang asked. “It’s literally a crocodile!”

“So? It’s probably more competent than you are…”

Kaizo walked over towards the humans, most of whom were cowering in slight fear behind one of them – a very unusual-looking human, with ridiculous clothing and bright purple streaks in his spiky hair. This one didn’t seem unfazed at all.

Neither did what seemed to be one of his friends or employees, since she cleared her throat and directly spoke to Kaizo. “Greetings, aliens.”

Kaizo just nodded at her in return. She had spoken in English – weird, considering they were in France. But then again, this was the airport, and it was a _private jet_ that these people had just come out of. They could have been from anywhere. And if they were rich enough to own a private jet, then somewhere like Hollywood seemed a likely source of origin…

“I uh… hope you come in peace?” she asked.

Kaizo casually rested his giant menacing sword on his shoulder. “Yes, we come in peace.”

“Oh, good…” She gripped her clipboard a little tighter. “Welcome to planet Earth. My name is Penny Rolling, a music agent. This here is Earth’s greatest rock star, Jagged Stone.”

The rock star struck a pose. “That’s me! Have you aliens ever heard my music?”

Kaizo’s unimpressed expression did not change. “No. Anyway, I’m taking your crocodile.”

“What? You can’t abduct Fang, he’s my pet!”

“Fang? Your crocodile is called Fang?”

“Yes!”

Kaizo laughed, and shoved Fang towards him – the alien Fang, that was. “This is my little brother, his name is Fang too. I’ll trade him for your crocodile for 8 months.”

Fang could hardly believe his ears – first of all this lame Earthling crocodile had the audacity to share his name, and secondly, Kaizo was going to _trade him for it???_

Jagged Stone frowned, a finger on his chin in thought. “Well, it would be pretty cool to have an alien sidekick… but how can I just give away my pet like that?”

Kaizo gave Fang a jab. “If it helps, my brother has superpowers and can play the guitar.”

“Whoa, really? What kind of superpowers?”

Fang muttered, _“Shadow crocodile,”_ and unleased one of his shadow animals. It was no big deal to him, he’d done way cooler feats than this before, it was practically nothing. But the humans seemed incredibly impressed, Jagged Stone most of all.

“Wow! That’s amazing!”

“It’s adequate,” Kaizo said.

“And this little guy can play the guitar too?”

Little guy? Seriously?! Fang was liking this less and less, the more time went on. He was not little! He was 14!

Penny stepped forward and handed Fang a guitar. “Please demonstrate your musical skills, Fang.”

Well, at least she was polite about it? He played a quick tune on it, not bothering to do his best. Maybe if these humans rejected him, then they wouldn’t trade their pet crocodile away for him, and then that would serve Kaizo right for making him do this in the first place.

Unfortunately, they loved it. All the humans gave him a round of applause. That was not meant to happen, as nice as it was to be applauded for something! He hastily handed the guitar back.

“This is great!” Jagged Stone said, a huge grin on his face. “Having an alien sidekick will be great for my promotional image! It might even give me new musical inspiration! And I’m doing a great service for alien rights! And in the meantime my precious pet crocodile can have a relaxing sightseeing holiday up in space – he’ll be the luckiest crocodile ever!”

“Yes, a relaxing sightseeing holiday,” Kaizo repeated, completely deadpan.

Jagged Stone leaned down to give his crocodile a hug. “You take care in space, okay? Make sure these aliens are taking good care of you! I’ll see you again in 8 months!”

Kaizo did not show anywhere near the same affection. He turned to Fang with the usual glare. “Don’t do anything stupid. Make sure you go to school. See you in 8 months. Bye.”

“Bye Captain,” Fang said.

Kaizo grabbed the crocodile’s leash and led it into the spaceship, not bothering to say another word to Fang. He watched as it rose back up into the air and ascended into the sky – the humans watched too, though much more impressed, considering they didn’t see sights like that every day.

“So that guy’s your brother?” Jagged Stone asked.

“Yes,” Fang replied.

“But he’s… he barely even said anything to you…”

Fang crossed his arms. “Yeah. I know.”

Penny came over and put a hand on his shoulder, giving him an encouraging smile. “Welcome to Earth, Fang.”

“Pffff, I’ve been here before.”

“Oh, really? That’s great! Have you ever seen Paris before?”

“Nope.”

His unenthusiastic replies did not affect her at all. “We can give you a sightseeing tour on the way to the hotel. And we’ll enrol you in a school so that you can start tomorrow morning. Do you know French, or should we put you in an international school?”

Fang switched into perfect French. “I know how to speak French, I’ll be fine in a normal school.”

Penny blinked a few times, finally actually taken aback by something. Then she smiled again and spoke in French this time. “That’s great! We’ll make sure you settle in well. Just let me know if there’s anything you ever need, and I’ll do what I can for you.”

He was tempted to ask for red carrot donuts, but decided to hold it for now. For starters, he wasn’t hungry – the reminder of Kaizo’s existence did tend to make him lose his appetite.

Jagged Stone had put on a pair of sunglasses. “Come on then, little alien sidekick! Let’s go sightseeing!”

Fang sighed. This city had better be interesting, or he was _not_ going to be happy.

-

Several hours later the entourage arrived at the hotel where they would be staying. Fang, thankfully, had his own room, and a very luxurious one too. One of the perks of being sidekick to a _rock star_ , probably. Penny offered to help him unpack, but he refused and closed the door.

Ah, alone at last to sulk in peace over this whole ridiculous situation!

Jagged Stone had said that having an alien sidekick would be good for his “promotional image”. Well, Fang certainly hoped it would be good for his own promotional image too. Would he be popular here, in this city? Surely he had to be, right? He was an alien, he had superpowers, he’d just been kind of adopted by someone who had been described as Earth’s greatest rock star…

But his luck was never that good. No, something would surely get in his way. Something always did.

He lay back on the bed and pulled out his phone to video call his friends. He had no idea what time it was for them right now – time didn’t exactly work the same in space, and anyway, he didn’t even know where they were. TAPOPS Space Station? TEMPUR-A headquarters?? Malaysia??? Those losers could be just about anywhere in the galaxy.

“Hi Fang!!!”

His friends popped up on the screen – looked like they were back at TAPOPS from what he could tell.

“Hi guys,” he said. “I’m in Paris now. Kaizo traded me for some rock star’s pet crocodile.”

“Oh we already know that!” Boboiboy said. “Your brother already dropped the crocodile off here, saying that it was a useless sidekick. So now it’s going to be our sidekick instead! Look!”

He turned the camera to show the crocodile lying in the corner of the room, munching on what looked like…

Red carrot donuts???

Fang’s stomach rumbled. “Are you feeding him my donuts?!”

“Good point, we should give him cookies instead!” Yaya suggested.

“You should very much _not do that_.”

“Aww, why not?”

Ying pushed her aside and quickly changed the subject. “So Fang, how’s Paris so far?”

“Lame,” Fang said. “I haven’t really seen much of it yet, but it’s full of traffic and there’s this ugly tower thing in the middle of the city that everyone seems to worship.”

“You mean the… the Eiffel Tower?”

“Ugh, yeah, that thing. So stupid.”

“Have you been to school yet?” Gopal asked. “Do you have to talk in French?”

“I start school tomorrow,” Fang replied. “And yeah, obviously I have to talk French. This is France, isn’t it?”

“Do you even know French?”

“Of course I know French! Don’t you?”

“Why would I know French?”

Fang facepalmed – humans were so dumb, honestly, being so slow at learning languages. It had never been difficult for him or any other kind of alien he’d met.

Yaya pushed her way back onscreen. “Fang, I did some research for your mission! The best source for all information on the Parisian superheroes is the local ‘Ladyblog’ – I’ve sent you the link, check your email!”

“Oh right, thanks.”

“And it seems that your brother was actually mistaken! There’s no power spheras or power watches in Paris – that’s why our sensors weren’t picking up any. The superheroes actually get their powers from their “Miraculous”, which is a type of magical jewellery! In Ladybug’s case it’s her earrings, and for Chat Noir it’s his ring. That’s what the supervillain is after.”

Fang sat up. “Wait, _what?_ You’re telling me Kaizo sent me here for nothing?!”

“Well you’ll get to learn a lot about French culture, and Paris is a great tourist destination, so you’ll at least get to–”

“I’m gonna call him right now.” Fang hung up immediately and began punching in Kaizo’s name. Seriously… did his brother have to ditch him here for almost a whole year, just because some random French kids owned magical jewellery, and no one had bothered to fact-check about it first?

“What do you want?!” Kaizo didn’t sound happy. But then again, he never usually sounded happy. If he ever did, that was probably _worse_ – him being happy definitely meant that he was about to inflict pain on someone who didn’t deserve it.

“There are no power spheras in Paris!” Fang said. “Look – I’ll forward you the link Yaya sent me about it–”

“Do you honestly think I care? Go away! Stop bothering me!”

“But Captain! These superheroes have… Miraculouses? I don’t know how to pronounce it properly but it’s something like that! They don’t have power watches! One of them’s got magic earrings, and the other has a magic ring…”

“Well then take those instead!” Kaizo scoffed. “Or don’t! I don’t care, if I hadn’t made that obvious enough already. Just complete your mission and stop bugging me about it!”

“So I still have to stay here?”

“Yes! I don’t have time to pick you up for another 8 months anyway. Keep an eye on these magic bits of jewellery and see if the humans are worthy of them. And don’t call me again!” He hung up without another word.

Well, now what? Fang chucked his phone halfway across the room and slumped back down on the bed, arms crossed. If he really did have to stay here for an entire 8 months for practically no reason, he would have to at least make the most of it.

He spent a little more time sulking in silence, then went over and got his phone again, checking the link from Yaya. Huh… this “Ladyblog” thing was just an amateur blog by some random schoolkid? And yet considered the most accurate source for information regarding these superheroes? Wow, Paris _really_ needed to sort out its journalism in that case.

Scrolling through, he took note of several things that made these superheroes different from his friends and their squad back in Pulau Rintis.

First of all, no one knew the civilian identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir. They had magical costumes and masks so that no one would be able to tell. Kind of stupid costumes, if he was being honest. But in any case, no one knew who these superheroes actually were.

It was a bit weird, really… their masks didn’t cover all of their face. Surely it wouldn’t be too difficult to figure out their identities from the rest of their face? Or their voice? But maybe the magic changed all of that, who even knew.

Secondly, Ladybug and Chat Noir never fought against their nemesis directly. Apparently this “Hawk Moth” dude hid cowering away somewhere and would remotely hypnotize people to become supervillains instead. Using _magic butterflies_ of all things. And then the heroes would fight them and un-hypnotize them. Or “de-akumatize” them, as it was described on this blog.

Yeah, the more Fang read, the more ridiculous it all seemed.

But then again, his life was already pretty ridiculous in the first place. At least here there would be a stark difference between him and these superheroes – he had powers, and he didn’t need to hide his identity for them! He could show off his powers as much as he wanted, knowing that he would be getting rightfully appreciated for it. And he was under no obligation to protect the city from this weird evil butterfly man. No – Fang could use his powers for the express purpose of popularity, and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Watching some of the videos, he noticed with glee that both Ladybug and Chat Noir’s powers seemed to be a good deal weaker and less versatile than his own. Plus, they were extremely limited – every time they did something that was actually cool, they only had 5 minutes to spare before transforming back and losing their powers for a while! The villains they fought had no such restrictions.

Hah… this city was so weird. They had no clue how lame their lives were. And now Fang would show them!

-

Being Ladybug _sucked_ sometimes.

How many weeks had it been since Marinette had last got a decent amount of sleep? Too many to count – or maybe she was just too tired to count. She hadn’t even been able to do her homework last night, too exhausted from yet another akuma attack, and had dropped back into her room and gone straight to sleep. It wasn’t until Tikki poking her awake in the morning telling her that she’d slept through 3 alarms that she remembered. Oh, Ms Mendeleiev was going to kill her if she couldn’t somehow get this done in time…

At least she managed to get to school fairly early despite having such a dreary start to her day. Better than getting there once classes had already started, like she had done twice earlier this week. Her excuses were really starting to wear thin.

Pulling things out from her locker, there was a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see her classmate Nathaniel standing there.

“Good morning Nath!” she said, putting on a smile and hoping she didn’t look as tired as she truly was. “What’s up?”

It was refreshing to see him willingly wanting to speak to her these days – back when he’d still had a crush on her, he had been far too shy. Almost like how Marinette herself still was with Adrien…

“Can you ask Ivan if I can sit next to him?” Nath asked.

“Uh… what?”

He was hugging his books to his chest, still nervous. “I went into the classroom, but the new kid’s sitting in my seat and uh… I don’t want to bother him, so I should sit next to Ivan instead…”

“New kid? What new kid? There’s a new kid in our class?”

“Didn’t you check the class groupchat?” Nath asked.

“I… uh…” She hadn’t had time to check it, not with Ladybug duties. “I muted it while doing homework and then forgot to unmute it afterwards! Yeah…”

“Oh right. Well yeah, there’s a new kid, so…”

“Oooh, are we talking about the new kid?” came a voice from behind her. The next thing she knew, Alya had come up and draped an arm over her shoulder.

“Nath was telling me that the new kid stole his seat,” Marinette said. “I didn’t even know there was a new kid!”

“Seriously? But the groupchat–”

“I haven’t checked the groupchat in three days!”

“Well you should! The new kid is that alien that Jagged Stone adopted the other day, so–”

Marinette did a double take. “Excuse me – the _what???”_

“Didn’t you see the news? About the alien?”

“I haven’t checked the Ladyblog either…”

Alya stared at her in disbelief. “Not the Ladyblog! The news! The actual _news_ news!”

“I… um…”

“Oh, Marinette…” Alya chuckled and shook her head. “You’re such a disaster, I love you.”

Marinette silently wondered if one day she would actually be able to tell Alya the truth about being Ladybug, and that she wasn’t really as much of a disaster as she seemed. Only like… 80% of a disaster. Yeah. But for now, she just had to deal with the fact that the only way anyone could make sense of her odd behaviour was by hiding behind the word _disaster_.

Oh… she so wished she could tell someone… _anyone_ …

“I am indeed a disaster, please tell me what’s going on,” she said. “I’m so confused.”

“Jagged Stone, the rock star, traded his pet crocodile for an alien kid for 8 months. And since he’s moved to Paris now, the alien has been enrolled in our school.”

That was… a lot to take in. For several seconds Marinette just tried to make sense of it. She’d never even met an alien before in her life. Hardly anyone had!

“Since when do aliens come to France?” she said eventually, her head spinning too much to even know where to begin. “I thought they always just went to either Cardiff or Malaysia…”

“Aliens don’t go to Cardiff, that just happens in TV shows!”

“Oh right! Well Malaysia then! I know aliens have definitely been there!” She vaguely recalled seeing something about that on the news a few years ago. It had been pretty surreal, but hey – at least it wasn’t aliens attacking Washington DC, just like in all those absurdly unrealistic Hollywood movies.

Alya grinned at her. “Yep, and our new class alien is one of those exact aliens.”

“What? So… so you’re telling me that Jagged Stone has adopted an alien from Malaysia, who has now joined our school, and is in our class, and has stolen Nath’s seat…?!”

“Yes!”

Marinette gave herself a few slaps in the face. “Am I awake right now? Nath, is this all real or is Alya messing with me?”

Nath gave her a look of pity. “It’s real.”

“Wow… there’s an alien in our class… a real alien from space…”

“So your anime protagonist seat over in the corner has been stolen, huh?” Alya asked, turning to Nath.

“Well he looks kinda like an anime protagonist,” Nath muttered.

“So what’s the problem? It’s two students to a bench, you can just sit next to him.”

“He doesn’t look very friendly. I think he chose to sit there because he doesn’t want anyone bothering him.”

“Like you did?” Marinette asked, giving him a poke.

He smiled and rolled his eyes – the one eye that was visible anyway, since the other was covered by that ridiculous emo fringe of his as always. “Yeah. Anyway, can you guys ask Ivan if I can sit with him instead? Or if he can swap with Alix so I can sit with her?”

“Ivan doesn’t bite, he won’t mind if you ask him,” Alya pointed out. “But if you really want us to ask for you then sure! Hey – why don’t we all go to the classroom now and check out this new alien? I hear he’s cute…”

Marinette gave her a playful shove. “Alya! He’s an _alien!”_

“So? Ladybug and Chat Noir are basically furries but that doesn’t stop half the population of Paris from–”

“Let’s just go!” Marinette said hastily. She knew perfectly well what half the population of Paris thought of her – she had unfortunately witnessed the “thirst threads” on the Ladyblog forums with her own eyes, and definitely didn’t want to think about that right now.

She slammed her locker door shut, then grabbed Alya’s arm and marched off, Nath quickly following behind.

-

Marinette had been expecting the alien to look more… well, alien. But as she stepped into the classroom, all she noticed was that some very humanlike kid was sitting in Nath’s seat in the corner of the room, keeping to himself, and the only unusual thing about his appearance was that he seemed to be even more goth than Juleka. Visibly, he didn’t look like an alien at all.

He was typing something into his phone, not looking particularly impressed, probably chatting with his old friends… yeah, she could see how Nath thought he didn’t want anyone bothering him.

“Hey Mylène!” Alya said, waving and walking over to her. “We’re doing a bit of classroom rearrangement, do you mind going and sitting next to Ivan so Nath can sit here with Alix?”

“No she can’t,” Alix butted in. “I have to sit next to Mylène so I can copy her homework.”

“You can copy Nath’s!”

“But he always gets half the stuff wrong because he spends all of class drawing or sleeping!”

“I do not!” Nath said. “And Alix isn’t allowed to copy my homework! And anyway Alya, I don’t want to sit here, I have to sit nearer the back so the teachers don’t catch me drawing. Either Ivan swaps places with Alix, or Alix stays here and I sit with Ivan…”

“Well I’m not moving if you’re not letting me copy your homework.”

“I think Ivan should probably stay near the back,” Mylène said. “He’s so tall, the fewer people who sit behind him, the better!”

“Fine then!” Nath turned to Alya. “Okay, can you go ask Ivan if I can sit with him…”

Ivan, who had been watching all this and could hear every word that was being spoken, stood up from where he was sitting. He walked over, clamped his hands on Nath’s arms, picked him up, and carried him over to his desk where he plonked him down beside him. “You don’t have to ask, Nathaniel.”

Nath shrank back into his new seat. “Uh, thanks Ivan…”

“Well, that’s that,” said Alya. “Hey Marinette, should we go say hi to the new kid?”

Marinette glanced at him again. “He seems busy…”

“He’s probably lonely! Having to sit in the back all by himself!”

“Alright then…”

Just at that moment, Chloé Bourgeois strutted into the classroom with Adrien and her poor unfortunate sidekick Sabrina trailing in awkwardly behind her.

Ugh.

Marinette couldn’t stand Chloé Bourgeois. And neither could anyone else.

Well, except Adrien, but he was so kind and caring that he could probably tolerate just about anyone, which was incredibly noble of him…

Chloé stood at the front of the room and cleared her throat, holding Adrien’s hand in a way that made Marinette want to retch. “Ahem! Do I have everyone’s attention?”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “What do you want, Chloé?”

Chloé narrowed her eyes at her. “I have an announcement to make.”

“Then make it!”

“Very well.” She cleared her throat again and lifted Adrien’s hand up to be visible to the entire room. “As the daughter of the mayor of Paris, I am the first to receive the weekly Parisian Fashionistas Envogue magazine. And guess what this week’s issue says? Our very own dear Adrien here has been officially voted the most popular teen model in Paris! Isn’t that so exciting?”

Marinette tried very, very hard to ignore the part of her brain that was currently engaging in incoherent screaming. Adrien, most popular teen model! That was amazing! She could totally see why, after all, he was so dreamy, and just so wonderful and handsome and sweet and…

No! Not right now. She snapped herself out of her dumb thoughts.

“Chlo, it’s not a huge deal,” Adrien said, gently pulling his hand out of her grasp.

“Yes it is, Adrikins! Everyone should be celebrating this!”

Ugh, that stupid nickname. Marinette wanted to stick a knife into her ears every time she heard it. _Adrikins_ , honestly.

Thankfully she was spared from more Chloé by Ms Bustier’s arrival, telling everyone to go sit down in their seats so that class could begin.

Marinette went and sat down in her spot beside Alya and pulled her unfinished homework out of her bag.

“You still haven’t done that?!” Alya whispered at her.

“I…”

“Haha, never mind, I don’t need any of your infamous Marinette excuses. Save those for Mendeleiev so she doesn’t kill you.”

Yeah, Marinette was definitely going to be killed by Ms Mendeleiev, that was for certain.

Oh, if only there was someone out there who she could vent at about all this… Tikki was there, of course, but Tikki couldn’t cover for her, or help her with excuses, or anything like that – the little kwami had to stay as much of a secret as everything else.

No… for now, Marinette would just have to grit her teeth and bear it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay wow I'm writing this fast, and wow these chapters are long. Hehe. Oops.
> 
> Anyway, the problem with ML is that there's no real chronological episode order, so for now I'm assuming (episodes in which Jagged Stone is relevant) Pixelator -> Guitar Villain -> Darkblade -> Kung Food -> s2 onwards. If there's any inconsistencies with that then lemme know.

Paris was a terrible place, Fang had decided. Central Paris was, anyway. How was it possible to end up in the exact same class as the literal _daughter of the mayor_ , as well as some preppy teen model? Oh yes, he had already seen Adrien’s face on the side of more than half the billboards in this cursed city. It was impossible to miss.

Now no one was going to pay any attention to Fang, were they? Not when they already had their own celebrities right in this very class to be obsessing over! It was so unfair!

Well. This was only the first day. Maybe things would improve.

As soon as the bell rang and the students dispersed into the courtyard for a break, Fang was ambushed by the two kids who sat in the row across from him. One of them looked like some kind of princess-y fairy angel while the other looked like… a vampire? Earth didn’t have vampires, did it? Eh, it was probably just a goth kid.

“Hi Fang!” the small fairy one said, beaming. “Welcome to Collège Françoise Dupont!”

The goth one mumbled something like “hrmmbmfffmbrr”, which her friend nodded at.

“Yeah, we hope you like it here! I’m Rose and this is Juleka! Do you want us to introduce you to the rest of the class?”

Fang glanced out at the courtyard, where everyone had already broken up into their various friendship groups and stood chatting. A bunch of kids from other classes were all stood around Adrien, fawning over him, asking him to sign copies of their magazine, while Chloé stood at his side looking smug.

“Just tell me who they all are from here,” Fang replied, clenching his fist. He didn’t want to have to directly talk to those stupid celebrities, nor anyone else really.

“Okay! Hmm, let’s see… you must already know Adrien and Chloé, right? Adrien is the son of Gabriel Agreste, one of the world’s most famous fashion designers! And he models all his clothes! Isn’t that so cool? And Chloé’s the mayor’s daughter, she’s uh…”

“A bully,” Juleka muttered.

“Aw, she’s just hard to get to know! I’m sure she’s a sweetie on the inside!”

Fang rolled his eyes. Hopefully Adrien and Chloé were the only ones at this cursed school who were unnecessarily famous.

“That over there is Alya!” Rose said, pointing at one of the other kids. “She runs the Ladyblog! You must know about that, right? It’s the most popular blog in the city! We get all our information about Ladybug and Chat Noir from there.”

“Wait, _she_ runs it???”

“Yeah! Isn’t that so cool? Our own classmate!”

No, this was NOT cool! This was ridiculous! Fang decided on the spot that he hated Adrien, he hated Chloé, and he hated Alya. Hogging all the popularity like that.

“And over there is Nino,” Rose continued. “He’s Adrien’s best friend. He’s also an amateur music producer and DJ! I bet he’s going to be super famous one day, he’s so good! He always gets hired for birthday parties and things, and he’s releasing a new album on Spotify soon, I’m so excited.”

Ah, okay, another person to add to the “unnecessarily popular” list. Fang’s heart sank even further.

“…And that’s Sabrina, Chloé’s friend, she’s actually quite nice, I promise. Her father is head of the police force in Paris! He answers directly to the mayor.”

And another one. Fine.

“…There’s Mylène, her father is the best mime artist in the city… that one is Ivan, he’s part of my rock band! Oh, I have a rock band by the way! It’s called Kitty Section and it’s a mix of rock, metal, screamo and darkwave! Okay who else… ah yes, that tiny one is Alix, she literally LIVES in the Louvre, since her dad is a renowned historian who runs the pharaoh exhibit there! There’s Nathaniel, he’s the best comic book artist ever… That one’s Kim, he’s a bit silly sometimes but he’s the fastest runner in the country in our age group… his friend there is Max, he’s super smart and he’s apparently building an actual robot! And I hear his mum’s training to be an astronaut! Wow, then maybe she could visit your planet some day!”

Seriously?

Seriously???

There was not a single part of what Fang had heard that he did not hate with all his heart.

Really, there was NO WAY that EVERY kid in this class could be famous, or popular, or be related to a celebrity, or whatever. No way!!! Wasn’t there anyone who was mediocre? Anyone at all?

“Juleka’s in my rock band too!” Rose said, giggling and giving Juleka a poke. “She’s wonderful! She lives on a boat, and her mum is a pirate!”

Fang plastered a fake smile on his face. “The last time I met a pirate, he threw my best friend through the walls of a space station out into space and almost killed him.”

“Oh! Um… well, Juleka’s mum wouldn’t do that, I promise!”

“Doesn’t sound very piratey to me, then.”

Rose giggled again. “Well she’s not a real pirate, we just call her that. I hope your friend is okay though!”

Pffff, yeah, the friend was totally fine. Nothing could kill that idiot properly. And nothing could kill his immense popularity either. At least here in Paris no one was talking about him…

“And that over there,” Rose said, pointing at another classmate, “is Marinette Dupain-Cheng! She’s just the most wonderful person ever! She–”

No, that was enough! Fang couldn’t stand to hear any more!

“I don’t want to know,” he snapped. “Thank you, Rose.”

Rose looked confused, but still had a smile on her face regardless. “You’re welcome!”

Ugh, she was one of those _constantly happy_ types, wasn’t she? One of those rays of sunshine? How annoying. Fang turned and stormed off towards the locker room – he needed somewhere quiet to go sulk.

He didn’t quite make it before a few kids from another class ran up to him. “Hey alien kid! Alien kid!”

“My name is Fang,” he said, glaring at them.

“Whoa that’s so emo!”

“Pfff, you think that’s emo? Just wait until you see my powers.”

“That’s exactly what we came to ask you about!” one of the kids said. “Can you show us your superpowers?”

Ah, now this was much better! Some actual attention for once! It lifted his mood considerably.

He summoned his shadow eagle and sent it flying around the courtyard. Practically everyone stopped what they were doing to watch it as it soared overhead.

Hah! Exactly! Now they were suitably impressed, weren’t they? Even Adrien’s fans paused for a few seconds to watch in amazement.

This… this was _much_ better.

And then once the novelty had passed, everyone immediately carried on what they were doing.

Fang looked to see that the kids who were talking to him had got out their phones and were furiously scrolling through something.

“I think there was an akuma villain that did something like that one time, lemme see if I can find it…”

“Pretty neat powers, do you think Ladybug and Chat Noir could beat this guy in a fight?”

Oh come on! Who cared about Ladybug and Chat Noir? Or stupid akuma villains?!

His mood was crashing down again – never mind, he did need to go sulk after all. To the locker room, then.

-

Several streets away, off in a dark lair somewhere, Hawk Moth stood monologuing to himself before his grand window.

“Ah, I sense the frustration of someone constantly in the shadows, wishing for attention and popularity, but always falling short.”

He held one of his butterflies in his palm and transformed it into an akuma. Then he sent it off out of the window.

“Fly, my little akuma, and evilize this poor alien soul!”

-

Thankfully the locker room was indeed empty. Fang pulled out his phone to call up his friends and vent at them – yes, he knew they hated it when he did that, they thought he was being ridiculous and petty whenever he even so much as mentioned the word “popular”. And maybe it really was a bit ridiculous and petty, but how could he help it? No one understood how he felt!

There was a flapping noise. He looked up to see a little black butterfly steadily approaching him.

Huh? He hadn’t made a shadow butterfly by accident or something, had he?

No wait–

That was an akuma!

It landed on his phone and phased into it. Within a second, Fang’s rage had magnified by several degrees, filling him with hatred, the need for revenge, the need to do something drastic. A voice spoke directly into his brain.

_“Fantômbre, I am Hawk Moth. No one has been paying attention to you, they all keep casting you into shadow. Well, I am giving you the powers to…”_

The akuma suddenly popped back out of the phone. The voice stopped and Fang’s violent mood instantly dropped back to the level it had been at before.

He looked at the akuma – it was flapping around rather haphazardly, and seemed to be… coughing?

What? Since when did butterflies cough???

-

Hawk Moth detransformed back into Gabriel Agreste immediately and turned to look at his kwami in shock. “Nooroo! What just happened?!”

“Master, you tried to akumatize an alien!” Nooroo replied, cowering a little.

“So what?”

“The butterflies you use are designed to akumatize beings from Earth! Something in the alien’s blood is causing them to be incompatible with him, like a virus against someone who has been vaccinated! They won’t be able to akumatize him…”

“Well then how can I akumatize him?!”

“You would have to find and use alien butterflies instead!” Nooroo suggested. “Something from his own home planet. Otherwise his alien physiology will prevent the akuma from sticking.”

“I can’t do that!” Gabriel sighed. “Well, I shall steal his Miraculous instead. Nooroo, which Miraculous is the alien using to create his shadow powers?”

“He is not using a Miraculous… Perhaps those are just part of his alien powers or something? I don’t think you’d be able to take them away from him…”

Gabriel rubbed his temples. “Ugh, never mind. I’ll just ignore him. Considering his shallow personality, I’m assuming he won’t be interested in using his powers to help Ladybug and Chat Noir. And if he stays out of the way, then he’ll cause no trouble for me.”

Nooroo gave him a nervous smile. “Uh, sure Master!”

-

Fang watched as the akuma transformed into a normal white butterfly and flew off. What had that been all about?

The door to the locker room opened. Fang looked up to see–

Oh, come on. That was Marinette! Marinette Dupain-Cheng! That kid in his class, the one who Rose had saved for last, and he didn’t even want to know what kind of popular, famous celebrity this girl was.

She spotted him and gave him a wave, walking over. “Hi! You’re the new kid in our class, right? I’m Marinette! What’s up?”

So she was trying to be friendly, was she? Was she one of those charismatic types who got along with everyone without even needing to put in any effort? Fang couldn’t stand people like that. It was unfair how they could just… just do it so easily, and he couldn’t!

As much as he didn’t want to talk to her, he was still confused about what had just happened. So he gulped down his rage and spoke. “I think I almost got akumatized just now.”

“Wait, what? What happened?”

“There was this little black butterfly, it went inside my phone and I heard this voice telling me stuff. But then the butterfly just left. I… I know it sounds weird, but I think it was coughing…”

Marinette thought for a few seconds. “I’ve never heard of that happening with akumas. Maybe it’s because you’re an alien? Maybe it’s not possible to akumatize you.”

“Wait, seriously? So I’ll never get to be an akuma villain?”

She blinked. “Uh… did you want to?”

“Of course I do! Isn’t that like, a Parisian rite-of-passage or something?”

She giggled. “It’s okay, I’ve never been akumatized before either! It hasn’t happened to everyone.”

Well she was probably just a goody-two-shoes, and that was why she’d never been akumatized. Probably too bright and sunny, staying on everyone’s good side like an absolute doormat. Fang crossed his arms. “Whatever, I already have superpowers anyway.”

“Oh yeah, I saw those! That eagle you made was really cool!” Her smile suddenly disappeared. “Wait, if you almost got akumatized… were you in a bad mood or something? What was wrong?”

He rolled his eyes. “None of your business.”

“Are you having trouble making new friends here? I can help you! This whole class is really wonderful, I’m friends with everyone in it! Well… everyone except Chloé…”

For goodness’ sake! He didn’t want to hear about how _friendly_ and _kind_ and _popular_ Marinette was, and how literally everyone in the universe was her friend! That was the complete opposite of what he needed right now!

He took a step away from her. “I don’t care, just leave me alone!”

She frowned at him in concern. It looked like she was about to say something else – well he didn’t need her pity! Or her help! He got out of there as quick as possible.

-

“How was your day at school?” Penny asked as soon as Fang was back.

He did not reply – having just walked into the room, he noticed that Jagged Stone seemed to be in a heated argument with some weird businessman.

“Oh, that’s just Bob Roth, Jagged’s producer,” Penny said quickly. “Don’t worry about him, haha! It’s fine. Everything’s fine. They’re always like this. So, how was school?”

Fang sighed. “Okay, I guess.”

“Okay? Did something happen?”

“I almost got akumatized…”

“Really? Why?”

Well, if he was going to be living here for the next several months, he may as well get used to telling Penny things. “Lessons are fine. But the kids in my class, they’re all… they’re all so famous! And popular! How’s anyone supposed to care about me when they’re all _like that?”_

Thankfully, Penny did not attempt to tell him how wrong and ungrateful he was. “I’m sorry it didn’t go too well. On the bright side, you didn’t get akumatized, did you? What happened?”

“No idea. It just didn’t work. I think aliens can’t be akumatized.”

She gave him a pat on the head. “Excellent! I don’t have to worry about it happening to you then. Those two, on the other hand…” She glanced back at Jagged and Bob, who were still at each other’s throats. “…well, I’ve got my work cut out for me.”

Oof, poor Penny. Getting those two to calm down didn’t sound like much fun.

“By the way,” Fang said, “tomorrow in class we’re helping out at the mayor’s hotel. So I might be back a bit late afterwards.”

“Oh, that’s no problem! Thanks for letting me know.” She scribbled something down on her clipboard. “Have fun with it!”

“Thanks.”

He stood there a bit awkwardly. She seemed to notice that he still wanted to ask something, and gave him a smile.

“Is there something else you wanted, Fang?”

“Um… is there anywhere nearby that I could get donuts?”

“Oh, of course! There’s a bakery right next to your school actually, it’s supposedly one of the best in the city. I’ll tell the limo driver to drop you off there tomorrow morning.”

Finally, some good news! He grinned. “Thank you Penny.”

“Of course! Now go get some rest.”

He nodded and went off to his room. Donuts, at last! Would they have red carrot donuts? Hopefully they would. He needed his daily supply of those or he would end up going crazy, for sure.

-

Ah, it was so nice to have a day with no akuma attacks. What a refreshing change! Perhaps after failing to akumatize Fang, Hawk Moth had given up for the day. Marinette was glad for it.

She awoke early the next morning actually feeling well-rested for once. It was so surreal! Could Hawk Moth take breaks more often? She would love for that to happen, even if it did mean less time spent as Ladybug.

On her way downstairs, she heard a voice from down in the bakery. A very familiar voice.

Was that…?

She ran down the last few steps and burst through the door.

It was! That was her new classmate right there, standing at the counter, talking to her mother!

Marinette went over to them. “Fang? What are you doing here?!”

He looked surprised. “Marinette? Wait, you live here?”

“Yes, this is my parents’ bakery…”

Sabine Cheng was looking between them in glee. “Ooh Marinette, is this a friend of yours?”

She noticed Fang scoff at that, and decided to ignore it. “This is Fang, that new kid in my class I told you about.”

“Oh yes, the alien!”

Marinette turned to him. “Fang, why are you here?”

“To buy food, obviously,” he snapped. “Why else would I go to a bakery? I was told this is the best and most popular bakery in the area, I didn’t realize you freaking lived here too…”

Why did he sound so miserable about it? In fact, from the brief time Marinette had spent speaking to him, he sounded miserable about practically everything. Maybe he was just… really homesick or something?

“Well what did you want to buy?” she asked him.

“I wanted red carrot donuts, but you guys don’t have any, you just have all this weird French stuff…”

“Why don’t you try some of the weird French stuff? Have some macarons!”

“Some what?”

She picked up a box of them and handed them to him. “A kind of French sweet. I frequently make them for all my classmates!”

That seemed to have been the wrong thing to say – he narrowed his eyes. “Do you have any carrot flavoured ones?”

“Uh, no, sorry, these are chocolate…”

He took the box anyway. “Fine. Thanks.”

“Do you have Earth money to pay for them?” she asked. “European money, I mean.”

“Yeah, I already exchanged currency at the bank. Here.” He put some Euros on the counter.

“Maybe we really should try making carrot macarons,” Sabine said, giving them both a smile. “It might be fun! I think Tom made some a few years ago, they taste a bit like carrot cake.”

Marinette was pleased to note that Fang had visibly cheered up a little upon hearing that – his eyes had a happy gleam to them beneath the weird glasses that he wore.

Wait… were his eyes…

Red???

Were those contacts? Juleka wore red contacts, after all. But she was just goth. What about Fang? He was an alien, so maybe his eyes really were like that. But then again, he seemed a bit on the goth side too, alien or not, considering his dark hair and clothes and moody personality…

“You two had better get to school now,” Sabine was saying. “Have a great day! Help out at the hotel as much as you can, alright?”

“Okay!” Marinette gave her mother a quick hug, then picked up her schoolbag and headed towards the door. “Come on Fang, let’s go.”

He followed her silently out of the door.

Now what? Since Marinette lived so close to school, she never really walked to school with anyone like many of her friends did. And even if she did, it was usually with someone who she already knew pretty well. Like Alya, or Nino!

Well, she may as well try to be friendly. She cleared her throat.

“So Fang, how come you speak such good French?”

“I learned it,” he replied.

“Wow! That’s pretty cool. I only really know French. Well, and a little bit of Mandarin from my mother, and some English from school and TV shows, but that’s about it.”

“Hmph. I know those languages too.”

“What, really?” She was genuinely surprised at that. “How many languages do you know?!”

He shrugged. “Earth ones? Malay, Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, English, French, Italian, Spanish… yeah.”

“That’s amazing!”

“Heh. It is, isn’t it?” He had a smug grin on his face now.

“How did you even learn so many languages?!”

“It’s not that hard. I don’t know why humans have such trouble with it.”

Hmm… yes, Marinette did have some trouble with it. Her pronunciation was always off, whether in Mandarin or English. So apparently aliens were much better at it? That was so interesting.

And best of all, Fang actually did seem to be opening up a bit right now. In that case…

“If it’s okay, can I ask why you were almost akumatized yesterday?” she said. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want! But if it’s anything I can help with…”

“No, you can’t help.” Yep, he was back to being grumpy again. “Everyone in this class is just so _special_ , aren’t they?”

“Uh… what do you mean?”

“That includes you too, Marinette.” He shot her a glare. “You’re all super famous, or related to someone famous, or probably going to be famous one day.”

“But what does that have to do with anything?”

“I just wanted to be popular for once! I’m NEVER popular back where I come from! Stupid Boboiboy always stealing all the popularity for himself…”

Hey, Marinette knew that name! “The Malaysian superhero? Ooh, you know him?”

“See what I mean?!” He really seemed annoyed now. “People only care about him! No one even knows who I am, even though I’m literally one of his best friends!”

“Oh, I see…” She tried to think of something to say. “Um… well, you’ll get popular here, I’m sure. I mean, you’re Jagged Stone’s sidekick! That’s pretty cool. I’m a huge fan of him actually…”

Oops, wrong thing to say again – Fang was probably feeling overshadowed by Jagged too.

“…and you’re an alien!” she carried on quickly. “You’re probably the first alien to ever visit Paris.”

His frown lifted slightly. “Yeah, I guess that’s true…”

“And you have superpowers, which is really cool!”

“Hah, people don’t care about that. Ladybug and Chat Noir have superpowers too. And so do all those akuma villains. Which I can’t become, remember.”

Ugh, this was impossible! It was like he didn’t even _want_ to be happy. She had no idea what to do. “Hey, well maybe we can be friends, and I’ll help you get popular…”

He wheeled round to face her. “You literally live inside the most popular bakery! And all your classmates worship you! Why would I be friends with you?! You’re the worst of the lot!”

Okay, ouch???

“And I don’t need your help!” he continued. “I can get popular on my own.”

He turned and walked off, leaving her standing there in shock.

Well. Wow.

Tikki popped her head out of Marinette’s purse. “That was a bit rude of him…”

“He’s…” Marinette could not even think of the words to describe it. “He’s just a… a shallow… brat! A real shallow brat! Like Chloé! Does he really care about being popular that much?!”

“It was nice of you to try making friends with him though,” Tikki said. “Maybe he just needs some more time to settle in.”

“Hmph! Well like he said, he can do it by himself! I’m not helping him if he’s going to be like that!”

But even as she said it, an annoying pang of guilt hit her. Oh, come on! Yes, she was Ladybug, yes she always had to take the moral high ground, but that didn’t mean she had to try and get through to a brat who didn’t want to listen!

Was it a cultural thing? But no, Fang already had human friends, he knew what human culture was like. In fact, one of his friends was very popular indeed – so popular that even Marinette, here on the other side of the planet, had heard of him.

So it was _possible_ for Fang to befriend people who were more popular than him, even if he hated that…

Was it worth trying?

-

This hotel, somehow, was even fancier than the one Fang had been staying at. The mayor had a list of jobs for all the students to be getting on with – Fang had been allocated vacuuming duty. Well, it could have been worse. At least he knew what he was doing and didn’t have to associate with any of those unworthy classmates of his.

He was just vacuuming the main hall area, trying to ignore the antics of the others who were in here – Chloé draping herself over Adrien over by the reception, the mayor trying to find jobs for Marinette and Alya to do – when the hotel doors opened and in stepped Jagged and Penny, with several suitcases being wheeled in behind them.

What? What the heck were _they_ doing here?!

The mayor was already greeting them, the other kids were already geeking out at the fact that Earth’s greatest rock star was standing right in front of them…

And Fang simply did not care. He switched off the vacuum and went over to Penny.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Jagged ignored whatever the mayor was saying and turned to Fang. “That other hotel was super lame! They didn’t dry clean my jacket properly and it’s got stains on it. Well I can’t have that! It’s so not rock-and-roll of them! So we’re moving here instead now.”

“Oh we’re moving? Was anyone planning on actually telling me?”

Poor Penny clicked her pen nervously. “I was just about to send you a message about it, it was only decided just now! Sorry, it’s been a bit of a hassle…”

Honestly, she seemed so overworked. Fang couldn’t help feeling bad for her. Being the agent of a bratty diva like Jagged Stone could not have been an easy job.

And, well… Fang knew he himself could be kind of bratty too, though usually he was too busy making excuses for himself to even notice…

That was when he spotted the stalker.

It must have been a stalker. Who else would be crawling through the door, hiding behind the nearest object and snapping pictures on a camera?

On the one hand, Fang didn’t really care. His own friend Gopal had done that to him way back in the day, it hadn’t bothered him. But on the other hand, if no one dealt with it then no doubt Penny would get the blame, and she didn’t deserve it.

He used his powers to stretch out a long shadow arm and grab the stalker, lifting him up into the air. Then he turned to Jagged. “This guy was hiding over there and taking pictures like a creep, what should I do with him?”

The stalker waved at Jagged and held up his camera. “Jagged Stone! It’s me, your biggest fan, Vincent Aza! Remember me?”

Jagged facepalmed. “Obviously I remember you, how can I not? You keep stalking me everywhere, you’ve literally been to my last 30 concerts, please go away…”

“Can we get a picture together? Please? So I can show the whole world that we’re totally BESTIES!”

To Fang’s surprise, Penny strode right over to the stalker to yell in his face. “Did you not hear Mr Stone?! We’ve told you so many times – NO PHOTOS! I’ll let you go this time, but if I see you again, I’m taking away your camera! Understood?” She nodded at Fang. “You can let him go now.”

Fang released his shadow powers, letting the stalker guy drop to the floor and make a hasty getaway. Huh – so Penny had a backbone! That was pretty cool.

The mayor was staring at Fang in shock. “You… wha…”

“Oh yeah, this is my sidekick!” Jagged explained. “He’s an alien with superpowers. Cool, right?”

“Uh… yes, cool,” the mayor replied, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief.

Penny turned to Fang with a smile. “Thank you for your help, Fang. You carry on with your work now and I’ll come and get you later to show you where our new hotel suite is. Do well, alright?”

He nodded. “Thanks.”

“Great! See you later!”

They were shown off to their room by a butler, and Fang grabbed the vacuum cleaner and carried on with his work.

Right, now to tune out everything and everyone again. It wasn’t easy. Even over the droning of the vacuum, he could hear the mayor telling Marinette that she would basically be Jagged’s servant for the day – hah, served her right!

-

For most of the rest of the day no one bothered him at all. The teacher came over to ask him a few questions about how he was getting on, no big deal there. At one point Marinette came up to him again.

“Fang, I just got yelled at… I had to find Mr Stone a pair of special sunglasses, and he wasn’t happy with the ones I got him… Is he always that sensitive?”

Laughing in her face would probably be just a little bit too mean. Instead Fang just shrugged. “How should I know? I’ve only been here like 2 days. And also I don’t care.”

Marinette gave him a rather withering look for a few seconds, but didn’t say anything else, and just walked away, presumably to go find better sunglasses.

Good! Fang didn’t want to talk to Miss Goody-Two-Shoes Popularity Queen anyway.

Hmm…

He got out the box of macarons. Should he try one of these? He was kind of hungry.

Eh, why not? He popped one of them in his mouth.

Oh… okay. Okay fine. This was good. This was really, really good.

How dare it be that good?!

Well – well that was probably why Marinette was so popular with her classmates! She’d probably just bribed them all with food! Yeah, that was it.

Fang shoved the macaron box back in his bag, livid. This food thing wasn’t going to work on him, no way. He couldn’t let her win!

-

A while later, he had just lugged the vacuum up another flight of stairs when he heard a commotion near the end of the corridor. What was that?

Running forwards, he rounded a corner and caught a glimpse of red and black disappearing into one of the rooms.

Red and black…

Was that who he thought it was?

He crept up to the door and took a peek through.

There, in the room, was what looked like a supervillain in an absolutely hideous outfit. Right, right, that was probably an akuma villain. Judging by the voice, it was that stalker guy from earlier. Yeah, that made sense.

The villain was talking to someone. Fang pushed the door open a crack and peered round to see none other than Jagged Stone in there. And Jagged was being protected by…

Fang took his visor off, gave it a clean on his coat, and then put it back on. Was he seeing things???

That was Ladybug there, yes, the superheroine herself, the one who all of Paris admired…

But clearly.

CLEARLY.

_That was Marinette Dupain-Cheng._

It was. It was Marinette. It had to be Marinette. There was no way it wasn’t Marinette!

He stared, unable to believe his eyes.

Marinette was Ladybug???

-

Humans were dumb. Humans were so, _so_ dumb.

That was all Fang could think while he was running through the Paris streets, checking the Ladyblog for updates on Ladybug and Chat Noir’s location. He just had to see them up close and in action.

How had no one else realized that Marinette was Ladybug? How had her own classmates not noticed? They looked exactly the same! They even sounded exactly the same! Sure, the mannerisms were a little different, but that was called _acting_ , and everything else matched up perfectly.

He reached the area where those two superheroes were facing down the villain. Hiding behind the nearest building, he watched carefully.

Yes, Marinette was Ladybug. There was absolutely no doubt about it. Somehow, humans were unobservant enough that they missed it entirely.

And Chat Noir…

Oh god.

That was Adrien Agreste.

How much more ridiculous could this get?!

The hair was a little different this time, and the mannerisms most certainly were. But it was pretty obviously him. Alright – Fang could kind of understand how people couldn’t figure out this one. It wasn’t quite as intuitive.

But Marinette being Ladybug, seriously! Were all humans this dumb, or was Paris just literally the worst city on Earth in every possible way?

Not bothering to watch the rest of the battle, Fang wandered back over to the hotel, still in shock. Maybe he should use his powers to help out in the battle, but…

Nahhh.

They didn’t need his help.

No – they didn’t _deserve_ his help.

He clenched his fists, rage rising up within him before he could stop it.

Those two were already popular. Marinette and Adrien! Two of the most popular kids out of a class full of popular people, out of a popular school! They already had more popularity than they needed.

And, on top of this, they were the city’s beloved superheroes?!

This was just too unfair for words! It was – it was DOUBLE POPULARITY! They got to be popular as civilians, and be popular all over again as superheroes too! Jeez, just pick one – even Boboiboy wasn’t greedy enough to have two different personas just for popularity!!!

Well, too bad for them, Fang wasn’t going to help them. No way. Let them struggle on their own.

He briefly considered telling everyone their identities, but… no, that would be going too far. He wasn’t evil, he didn’t want doom and despair to befall an entire city of people just out of his own spite. And plus, if these Parisians were really stupid enough not to have figured it out on their own, then they clearly didn’t deserve to know the truth. Let them just wallow in their ignorance.

Hah… Marinette and Adrien didn’t even know, and they were in the same class! Imagine that! Ladybug and Chat Noir being classmates and not even knowing it!

Yes, this would be much more fun to sit back and watch for himself. Watch them struggle. Make fools out of themselves with their lame excuses, their difficult battles, their own lack of knowledge.

He’d just sit there munching on popcorn…

His stomach rumbled as he thought about those macarons in his bag.

Okay, okay, fine. He’d sit there munching on those unfairly nice macarons.

Oh, hopefully they’d make carrot macarons soon – those would just taste so good…

But he certainly wasn’t going to tell Marinette that!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow burn is painful. Why am I doing this to myself.

“Can you believe the _nerve_ of that Marinette kid?!” Fang said.

On the screen, Boboiboy yawned, his eyes drooping half shut. “Yes, I can, Fang. I read your 2000-word essay.”

“Huh? My email? It’s not that long, is it?”

“It is, Ochobot checked for me. And most of it was about Marinette.”

“No it wasn’t!” Fang snapped. “Well… maybe it kind of was. But seriously! Not only is she freaking _Ladybug_ , but she made those dumb Eiffel Tower glasses and now Jagged Stone won’t even take them off, and he keeps going on and on about how cool they are and how talented Marinette is, and then he’ll switch over only to talk about how cool _Ladybug_ is for saving him the other day, and…”

“Are you sure you’re not just jealous?”

“It’s not jealousy! What has she done to deserve all that popularity, huh?”

“Saved the city?” Boboiboy suggested. “Look, you’re just doing the same thing you did last time. Soon you’ll end up friends with these French superheroes and you’ll start helping them. Just like you did with us.”

Fang crossed his arms. “This is different.”

“How is it different?”

“Marinette is double popular! No one else seems to know that she’s Ladybug, so she gets all that popularity too!”

Boboiboy sighed. “Will you ever just let the popularity thing go? It’s not a big deal.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re one of the most popular superheroes to have ever existed!”

“Ugh, I don’t have the energy for this. I’m going to bed. Goodnight. Tell your rock star guy that his crocodile is doing fine.”

“Oh, fine. Goodnight.”

Fang hung up, not feeling any better than he had done before he’d called. What was the point of venting if the time differences between here and space meant that Boboiboy was too tired to listen? Though to be honest, he probably wouldn’t have been sympathetic even if he was properly awake, considering how much it annoyed him whenever Fang started talking about popularity…

Well never mind! He could just fume over it all in a lonely silence, if no one else was going to listen.

Stuffing a pair of headphones in his ears, he headed out of the door.

Stupid Marinette… why did she have to go all out and actually DIY a pair of sunglasses for Jagged? Yeah yeah, she wanted to be a fashion designer, whatever. It was still too over the top! Seriously, how much did she suck up to people just to get them to adore her?

And then she and her friends had been given concert tickets as a thank you present. Penny had told Fang he could go with his classmates if he wanted, but there was no way he was doing that – he stayed backstage for the entire thing. And anyway, Jagged Stone had freaking written a song for Ladybug! There was no way he wanted to listen to that!

He reached the main room, only to see that Jagged and Both Roth seemed to be arguing over something again. Why were they always arguing? Jagged seriously needed a new producer.

“Ah, Fang!” Jagged waved him over. “I need your opinion! What do you think of this?”

He held up a light pink CD cover.

“Looks like a perfume ad,” Fang said.

“Hah! Exactly! See, Bob? Anyway Fang, I need you to go to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and tell that schoolmate of yours to design a cover for my new album. She’s so talented! I think she’ll really do it justice – I mean, she did such a great job on these sunglasses.”

Not those darn sunglasses again!

“Wait, you’re getting _Marinette_ to design your album cover?!” Fang asked, his bad mood dropping even further.

“Yeah! I like to support young talent! Like I did when I took you on as sidekick. So go on, sidekick! Go find Marinette and tell her to make me an album cover!”

Fang looked at Penny for help, but she just gave him an encouraging nod. Ohhh! Why did everyone have to love Marinette so much?! And now Fang had to go talk to her again! This was so stupidly unfair. His day was getting worse and worse, and he wouldn’t even be able to be akumatized into forgetting about it for a while.

Curse this city.

Trying not to self-combust from the rage, Fang left the room and started walking down the corridor, only to hear Bob Roth’s voice calling after him.

“Fang! Wait a second!”

He turned around. “Yes?”

Bob went up to him and handed him the CD cover that looked like a perfume ad. “Tell her to make the cover in this style, okay?”

“Huh? This doesn’t look much like Jagged Stone’s style…”

“Yeah well he’s going for a new style now! Just do it, alright? Good child.” He gave Fang a very fake smile, then turned and went back into the room.

Fang looked down at the CD cover. Oh, it was XY’s new album – that weird pop star guy who Jagged had a grudge against for some reason. There was no way Jagged wanted his album cover looking like this! That had probably been what caused his argument with Bob in the first place.

In that case, if Marinette did make a cover like this, then Jagged would be annoyed, and maybe he’d stop stanning those damn sunglasses for a while…

Fang grinned. He had no stakes in this – fine then! If Bob wanted a stupid perfume ad-looking cover, then that was exactly what he would tell Marinette to do!

-

“But this looks like a perfume ad,” Marinette said.

Fang glared at her – did her Ladybug powers give her the ability to read minds or something?

“Are you sure this is what Jagged Stone wants?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Fang replied. “He’s uh… going for a new style.”

“Well, this is a great opportunity, but…” She looked at him very carefully. “Are you 100% sure? Are you absolutely certain?”

Ugh, she probably thought he was tricking her on purpose or something – she knew perfectly well that he didn’t like her.

“Alright fine,” he said, rolling his eyes, “Jagged probably doesn’t want his album cover looking like a perfume ad, no. But his producer told me to tell you to make it like this. So it’s up to you – do what you want.”

“Right. Thank you for being honest.”

There was an awkward silence. Fang couldn’t stand awkward silences and he didn’t have anything left to say to this shameless popularity thief anyway, so he turned to leave.

Then he remembered…

“Do you have any carrot macarons yet?” he asked.

She had been looking at him with more than a small amount of suspicion, but it faded away on hearing that. “Oh! Not yet, sorry. We’ll make some soon, okay?”

He ignored the heartbreak. “Okay.”

“Did you like the chocolate ones though?”

_Say no! Tell her they were terrible! Tell her they were worse than Yaya’s cookies!_

“…Yes.”

Ugh, he just couldn’t lie about those macarons…

“Good!” She gave him a genuine smile. “Feel free to buy some more!”

“Sure. Thanks.”

Another awkward silence. They both looked at the floor.

Alright, that was enough – Fang couldn’t stand to be in her presence for much longer. He opened the door and left the shop.

-

It was much later in the day when Jagged Stone got akumatized. Fang had no idea why it had happened, nor did he much care. In fact, he didn’t even notice until he heard some weird commotion going on outside the window and went over to have a look.

Down there was some weird akuma villain with an absolutely outrageous outfit, bright pink hair, and a giant electric guitar.

Yeah. That was definitely Jagged Stone.

From the looks of it, he was attacking random Parisians with rock music. Yep, that also seemed like the typical nonsense akuma powerset. How predictable. Apparently Hawk Moth had no sense of creativity whatsoever.

Akumatized Jagged had noticed Fang looking out of the window – he gave him a wave. “Hey sidekick!”

Fang waved back, not really caring. Jagged wasn’t attacking _him_ , so what did it matter?

“Sidekick, I need a mode of transport so I can go find XY! Do you mind making one of your shadow animals for me to ride? That would be so rock-and-roll!”

Helping an akuma villain? On the one hand, Jagged Stone was not in his right mind right now, and Fang didn’t have to do what he said. But on the other hand, Ladybug would obviously defeat him anyway like she did with all the other akuma villains. So in the meantime, why not make her life as inconvenient as possible by making it more difficult for her?

“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Fang summoned his shadow dragon just outside the window. “Alright dragon, you go and do whatever akumatized Mr Stone tells you to do. Have fun!”

He set the creature loose and then shut the window again, going and sitting down to have a nice relaxing break. Outside he could hear people screaming as Jagged and presumably the dragon wreaked havoc everywhere.

Great! This would serve Ladybug right!

Fang munched on some macarons and put on some good music. Ah, there – he was feeling so much better already!

-

His good mood only lasted until the next morning. Marinette showed up bright and early to deliver the finished album, before Fang had even had breakfast – well honestly! He did NOT need to see her ungrateful popular face first thing in the morning!

He stood in the corner, arms crossed, trying to drown out her voice. She probably thought she sounded so sweet, didn’t she? So cute and adorable and friendly. Blegh.

“…and I made this special sticker that smells like leather, and I’ve done it in your style, I hope you like it Mr Stone…”

Ugh! How was it possible for her to be so annoying and _perfect?_ Everything she did just seemed specifically designed to get people to like her as much as possible! It was the stupidest thing ever!

And there was Jagged, praising her for her originality and creativity, telling her she’d be a great fashion designer someday, and now yelling at Bob some more, and then back to praising Marinette…

That was all anyone in this city ever did. Praise Marinette Dupain-Cheng. And if they weren’t praising her then they were praising Ladybug, and guess what? That was still her!!!

Fang clenched his fists so hard his nails were digging into his palms through his gloves. The stinging did nothing to take his mind off his stupid, annoying, popular classmate.

Marinette… Pretty, perfect Marinette… what was wrong with her, honestly…

“Hey, Fang?”

He snapped out of his thoughts to see the girl herself standing right in front of him. Evidently she had finished talking to Jagged.

“What do you want?” he said.

“Was Mr Stone alright after being akumatized yesterday?”

“He was fine.” It wasn’t a lie at all – Jagged had just seemed impressed at his own akuma self, if anything. He hadn’t really made a big deal of it.

“Oh, good…” She lowered her voice. “Is it true you made the dragon that he was riding on yesterday?”

“Well what was I supposed to do?” Fang retorted. “I’m his sidekick, I’m supposed to do what he says, right?”

“You don’t have to do what akuma villains say though! If you have superpowers, shouldn’t you be _helping_ the city?”

“Why should I?!”

“Because it’s the right thing to do!”

Hah, what a goody-two-shoes she was. He wasn’t even surprised that she’d say something lame and cliché like that.

“And anyway,” she continued, “I thought you really were a superhero. Like, back in space, and in Malaysia! You and your friends, you guys are superheroes, right?”

Fang glared at the floor, not even wanting to look at her. “Well I’m supposed to be, but I’m always overshadowed by those stupid friends of mine, aren’t I…”

To his surprise, she started giggling. “You know Fang… if you helped out Ladybug and Chat Noir sometimes, I bet you’d get way more popular.”

Yeah, right, as if that would ever…

Wait.

_Wait._

That could actually work!

She was right, wasn’t she???

She had a point! If he helped the superheroes, the rest of the Parisians would think of him as a superhero too!

And yeah, he might get overshadowed by Ladybug, but it would still be more popularity than he had now… and plus, he was totally way more powerful than Ladybug. If the Parisians saw him in action against an actual villain, there was no way they wouldn’t love him! And maybe they’d stop obsessing over her all the time!

“See you at school!” Marinette said, giving him a sickeningly sweet smile and then walking off.

Ohhh… she had done that on purpose. She just wanted him to stop annoying her. What a sneak!

But she really, really did have a point…

Well, he would have to wait for the next akuma attack, and then he’d have to help her out. He would show them all who the best superhero was. They had no idea what was coming!

-

For several days in a row, Marinette was walking with her head up in the clouds. Jagged Stone had loved her sunglasses! Then loved her album cover! Then Adrien Agreste himself had asked her to sign it for him! And now, Jagged had again requested her help with something new…

Could life get any better? Everything was just so perfect right now! The only thing that would make it more perfect was if she could just say an entire full sentence to Adrien. Why did she always have to be such a stuttering dork around him? It was so embarrassing. Marinette wondered if she was even capable of having a crush on someone without losing the ability of actual coherent speech when near them.

She made her way over to the hotel in the evening, ready for whatever Jagged Stone was asking of her. She had stuffed all her sketchbooks into her bag, along with her tablet and pen, just in case. With Tikki’s words of encouragement ringing in her ears, she went up to his suite.

“Ah, Marinette!” He had those sunglasses on again – he seemed to wear them so often these days. “Good to see you again!”

“Hi Mr Stone,” she said.

“The album you made the cover for is selling great! That’ll show Bob Roth…”

She didn’t know what to say to that. For some reason, she got the distinct impression that Mr Roth did not like her at all. He didn’t really seem to like Jagged Stone himself either.

“We have a new request for you,” Penny said, coming over and ticking something off on her clipboard. “I understand you have an interest in fashion?”

Marinette nodded. “I love fashion!”

“Ah, excellent! Jagged is uh, a little unimpressed with his sidekick’s current choice in attire. As we’re in Paris, the fashion capital of the world, this is the perfect place to fix that! So we’d like you to help choose something better. It’s up to you whether you design outfits from scratch or find something pre-existing that would suit him – we’ll provide you with as much material or money as you need.”

Marinette’s heart was sinking, right out of the clouds and back to the ground with a thud. “You want me to give Fang fashion advice?”

“That’s right.” Penny gave her a look of sympathy. “Fang was… not hugely receptive to the idea, but… well, you’d be perfect for the job, and you’re his classmate, so at least you already know him.”

“Um… okay…”

“Good luck. He’s in his room.” Penny patted her on the shoulder.

Right. This was not exactly what she had been expecting.

But that was okay! This was a challenge, right? She could do this! She fought akuma villains almost every single day – surely giving her somewhat unfriendly classmate some fashion advice wouldn’t be too difficult in comparison.

Yeah, it would be fine. Everything would be fine.

She took a deep breath, then went into the room.

Fang was already sitting there quite clearly sulking. This was that ridiculous popularity thing again, wasn’t it? It always was. He was probably annoyed that Marinette had been given this job, getting even more attention yet again.

Well how could she help it? Fang would be more popular if he cooled his fiery attitude a bit!

Anyway, this was not the time for disagreements. She had a job to be doing.

“Hi Fang,” she said, going and sitting down on the other side of the table from him. “What’s up?”

He was silent for a few seconds. Then he just said, “So how many people know you’re Ladybug?”

It took a moment to register what he had said.

How many people knew she was…!

“WHAT?!” She half leapt out of her seat in shock when it hit her. “I – I’m not Ladybug! W-what are you talking about?! Where did you get an idea like that from? Ahahaha… that’s ridiculous… me, Ladybug…”

He was just looking at her, unimpressed. “Oh come on! it’s so obvious it’s you.”

“N-no it’s not! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

She was sweating buckets, she knew it. How could he have possibly figured it out?!

“Earthlings are so dumb,” he said, crossing his arms in that emo way he always did. “I don’t know how no one else has noticed. But yeah, I know you’re Ladybug, you can drop the act now.”

Marinette could hardly speak. No one had ever figured it out before. _No one_.

Slowly, she kicked her brain into gear again. Okay… Fang knew. Fang knew that she was Ladybug.

“Fine,” she said quietly. “I’m… I’m Ladybug. But you can’t tell anyone!”

“Pffff, why would I tell anyone?”

“Phew, thank you…” She opened her purse and bopped her little kwami on the head. “Tikki, I guess you can come out now…”

Tikki flew up out of the purse and floated there in the air, looking just as worried and nervous as Marinette was feeling. That didn’t make her feel any better.

Of course, the first time Marinette had ever seen Tikki, she had run halfway across the room screaming. It bugged her beyond belief that Fang did not do the same thing – but hey, Fang had been to plenty of other planets, and seen all kinds of weird and wacky things in his life. A kwami was probably nothing out of the ordinary for him.

He just watched Tikki for a second or two, not particularly interested. “What’s this?”

“I’m Tikki,” Tikki said, giving him a wave and a smile. “Ladybug’s kwami. She gets her powers from me.”

“I thought I may as well introduce you, since you already know,” Marinette sighed. “And… and I have been wanting someone to know. For a long time now.”

“Why?” Fang asked.

“Because being Ladybug is stressful! I never have enough time for homework, I’m always late to class… I wanted someone to talk to about it! Someone to help cover for me!”

But she hadn’t wanted that someone to be _Fang_.

He seemed to have worked that out. “Well, I know I’m a superhero too, but I can’t relate. None of us ever bothered hiding our identity.”

“That’s very lucky for you,” Tikki said. “Historically, Miraculous-wielders who have not kept their identity a secret usually ended up suffering greatly.”

“Well don’t worry, I’m not gonna go around telling people, so Marinette sadly won’t uh… suffer greatly.”

Despite how cartoonishly petty he was being, Marinette couldn’t help but smile. “Thanks, Fang. And you’ll help me out during akuma battles, right?”

“Yeah. But only to get more popular than you.”

“Alright, good enough.”

There was a long period of silence, as neither of them knew what to say next. What was it with all the awkward silences?!

Tikki cleared her throat. “Marinette? Are you going to start helping Fang with fashion now?”

“Oh yeah!” She smacked herself on the forehead. “That’s why I’m here! I forgot…”

Fang rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I know, I’m a _fashion tragedy_. You guys aren’t the only ones to have said so.”

“It’s alright, you’re not that bad! I’ll help you out.”

Marinette looked him up and down. Okay, well… he was wearing about three vests from the looks of it, and that sliced jacket with a belt over the top was not doing him any favours. Those definitely needed to go.

His hair was alright, though. He seemed to be going for a spiky anime look and it worked for him. The glasses too – they were pretty unusual, and a bit weird, but they did frame his face quite nicely. Though they did look a bit like the safety goggles Ms Mendeleiev made them all wear in their science lessons…

“You like wearing dark colours, don’t you?” she asked.

“Yeah, obviously.”

“Represents the darkness in your soul, eh?” She grinned and pulled out some paper to start writing this down. “You’re a bit like Juleka I guess. Goth. Or wait – are you more emo?”

“How should I know? I don’t care!” He looked away for a few seconds. “…Oh fine. Emo.”

“Just what I thought.”

Whatever she went for, the dark colours and slightly morbid aesthetic had to stay.

Hmm, what else, what else?

The boots were fine, as were the fingerless gloves. The trousers were a bit on the puffy side, but it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, and at least the colours didn’t clash.

The jacket was definitely the worst part. It had to go.

The only good thing about it was… well, it was sleeveless, and this boy certainly had _biceps_ alright. They were clearly visible.

If anything, they were a bit distracting…

Marinette hastily tore her eyes away from them and looked down at her sheet of paper. Right. He definitely needed a jacket with sleeves this time. Not to stop her getting distracted – she could do that herself! But Paris weather wasn’t the most consistent, and it was definitely much colder here than in Malaysia. The poor dork would end up freezing if he didn’t get some weather-appropriate clothes.

“I think I have some ideas,” she said. “I’ll have to have a think about it and then get back to you.”

“Whatever,” he replied.

Yes, he would definitely look nice if she got him some other clothes. Not that he didn’t already look nice! He did. When Alya had said he was cute, she hadn’t been wrong. He certainly was pretty cute. And Marinette knew she could make him look even cuter.

Wasn’t it strange how alien anatomy was so similar to that of humans? Even looking more closely now, Marinette couldn’t spot many differences at all. Fang could very easily pass for a completely normal, if pretty handsome, teenage human boy. He even sounded exactly like one – he barely had an accent at all when speaking French.

If only his personality was as agreeable as his looks…

But the only person who Marinette had met who was absurdly hot _and_ absurdly nice at the same time was Adrien Agreste. And with that thought in her mind to clear out everything else, she stood up to leave.

“I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” she said. “If I’m late due to Ladybug reasons then uh… cover for me, okay?”

He rolled his eyes unnecessarily dramatically. “Fine.”

“Thanks. Come on Tikki…”

Tikki popped back into her purse. It was so surreal to be able to talk with Tikki in the presence of another person – she was so used to keeping her hidden away all the time.

It must be pretty refreshing for Tikki too, come to think of it…

Marinette left the room. Her mind was still half numb from the revelation that Fang knew that she was Ladybug. This was sure going to take some time to get used to, because right now, it was still struggling to properly sink in.

On the bright side, at least he wasn’t going to tell anyone, and he had agreed to help her. How much? Probably as little as he could get away with. But with the promise of potential popularity, maybe he’d come to his senses and actually do the city a good turn.

Hey… he was already a superhero. He knew what he was doing. And he knew what it was like to have the responsibility of saving people on his shoulders.

Would it be something that Marinette would be able to properly talk to him about, given enough time?

Well she certainly hoped so!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really have an update schedule, I'm just posting these chapters as and when I write them. I'm also not really writing this fic in order, I keep skipping to parts later on because I'm impatient and accidentally ship it too much and slow burn is painful as hell to write. Anyway, thank you so much to everyone reading this so far, I'm surprised people were interested in this idea! I thought it was super niche lol

French people were so weird.

No, this was not a general Earthling thing. It wasn’t even a human thing.

It was a _French people_ thing.

Always so mushy, always so touchy-feely, even with strangers! Their greeting was practically an air cheek kiss! Not to mention, there didn’t seem to be any sort of taboo against PDA, considering the things people got up to in plain direct sight…

In a way, Fang was glad that no one came near him. Maybe he gave off some sort of “DON’T TOUCH ME” vibe, for which he was grateful. These Parisians were just gross.

His classmates were no exception. On the way to the bakery after school, he walked past Marinette and her squad having some sort of ridiculous conversation – from the looks of it, Marinette was busy drooling over Adrien, Nino was drooling over Marinette, Adrien was oblivious to everything, and Alya was dying inside almost as much as Fang himself.

Hah! Marinette probably only liked Adrien because he was popular, and because he was a hot model. Right? It wasn’t like she ever actually talked to him properly. Everyone knew that.

Seriously though… it was so weird how they all seemed so outright _open_ about their dumb teenage desires for romance around here. It hadn’t been like that back with his friends – they never really talked about stuff like that. Sure, that was usually because they were constantly in danger and had bigger things to be worrying about at any given moment, but still! It wasn’t like Marinette didn’t have her plate full with the whole being Ladybug thing!

And she still had time to fawn over Adrien, talk to Alya about it at length, taking it so seriously, being so obvious that it was astounding that Adrien himself hadn’t noticed her giant crush on him…

Yep. Parisian teenagers seemed to take their romance very, very seriously. At least, these ones did.

Entering the bakery now, Fang vaguely wondered if he would end up the same way. It wasn’t like he didn’t want people to swoon over him like how Marinette was with Adrien, and it wasn’t like he himself hadn’t done that swooning in his own mind over occasional cute people… He’d just never really talked about it. His friends would probably just laugh at him if he did.

(That being said, he would definitely laugh at them if the roles were reversed, so…)

“Oh, Fang!” Marinette’s mother was there again. “Good to see you again! Marinette told me you liked the macarons.”

That snitch! He didn’t want people _knowing_ that he liked those things. All it would do was get this bakery even more popularity, and with it, Marinette too.

“Can I have some more?” he asked.

“Of course! What flavour would you like?”

“Um… do you have any carrot ones yet?”

“Sorry, not yet!”

Again? He tried not to show his disappointment. “Okay then, I’ll have whatever…”

“Here, have some raspberry jam ones. They’re delicious!” She handed him a box of them. “We’ll make some carrot ones at some point, not to worry.”

“Thank you.”

He paid for them, then walked out again. Should he have said something more? After all, he kind of knew Marinette now. They were classmates, he knew her Ladybug secret, she was his fashion consultant… Maybe he was supposed to talk to her parents a bit more? Maybe if he did, it would remind them to make carrot macarons a bit quicker!

-

Back at the hotel, he was just walking up to his suite when he heard a voice from behind him – an extremely annoying voice, possibly one of the most annoying he had ever come across so far.

“Excuse me, alien classmate! I’d like to speak to you!”

Ugh.

_Chloé Bourgeois._

“What do you want?” he snapped, turning around to look at her.

The two of them pretty much hadn’t spoken at all yet, despite the fact that Chloé lived in this hotel too. So far she just seemed to have been ignoring him. Well, he was fine with that. Chloé was not the most agreeable person in the universe – in fact, she was very far from it.

Fang knew he himself could be a little bit of a jerk at times if he was in a bad mood (which, to be very fair, he frequently was). But Chloé was well beyond that. Juleka had been right in calling her a bully. Chloé wasn’t a bit of a jerk – she was just plain _mean_.

Now she strode up to him and stood there with her hands on her hips, sizing him up. “You’re from space, right? What were you like on your home planet? Are you rich, by any chance?”

Oh, right. Gold digging as usual. She was always hanging around Adrien Agreste – was it just because he was rich? He wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Anyway, he didn’t feel like being particularly nice to her. She didn’t deserve that.

“Richer than you in brain cells,” he replied.

Her demeanour changed entirely at hearing that. “Excuse me?! Do you have any idea who I am? I am the daughter of the Mayor of Paris, I’ll have you know!”

“Well yeah, obviously, you never shut up about it.”

She gasped, affronted. “How dare you speak to me like this?”

“Very easily.”

“Well – well–” She extended a finger and gave the collar of his jacket a flick. “Well, like you have any right to talk! You’re obviously not using those brain cells you claim to have very productively if _this_ is how you dress! This jacket is an offence to my eyes, and that’s just for starters.”

“You dress like a bumblebee,” he pointed out.

“Hey! These colours are in vogue right now! Which you would know if you were actually fashionable, but you aren’t. Those weird alien glasses are making me want to throw up. Is everyone on your home planet so terribly-dressed?”

“Who cares? Marinette’s redesigning my wardrobe anyway, so…”

Chloé started laughing – that annoying, evil rich anime lady laugh. “Hah, as if Marinette knows anything about fashion! No doubt she’ll make you look even worse. She has absolutely no taste at all. Have you seen that hideous outfit she wears?”

Fang had been about to retort that Marinette’s clothes looked perfectly fine, thank you very much, when he stopped himself – why did he feel the sudden need to defend Marinette? He didn’t even like her! Well yes, he also disliked Chloé, but it was less personal. He mostly didn’t care about Chloé and would rather just have her keep out of his way.

But Marinette? Ladybug herself? That popularity thief?

He didn’t have to be nice about her. Even if it was true that her outfit was fine, and that Chloé was probably just being rude for no reason again.

It was probably those macarons… yes, those unfairly delicious macarons were making him want to be nicer to Marinette. That was it! Well, he wasn’t going to let them work! Best to change the topic for now and avoid Marinette entirely.

“You know, Chloé,” he said, crossing his arms, “getting on the nerves of an alien with extremely strong superpowers is probably not in your best interests.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you threatening me? I’ll tell my father!”

“Pfff, what’s he going to do about it? Fight me?”

For several seconds she simply stared him down. Then she sighed, relenting. “What do you want, Fang? A truce?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Don’t talk to me and I won’t talk to you.”

“Fine. But if this is going to be a truce, then it will be a _proper truce_. You are no longer allowed to interact with me, under any circumstances whatsoever, save for if class requires it. As long as you stay out of my business, I will leave you alone.”

“Perfect.”

“Our truce begins now.” She turned around and flounced off without another word.

Oh good, so she wouldn’t bother him from now onwards. And all he had to do was ignore her? This was a win-win situation! No more Chloé Bourgeois getting on his nerves in the foreseeable future!

His phone beeped. He took it out of his pocket, wondering who could possibly be messaging him right now. His friends were probably still doing missions or training, so the only other options were either Penny, or… well, Marinette…

Oh – no, it was just an alert from the Ladyblog.

_Parisians, your favourite Ladyblogger Alya here! Guess what? I was at the zoo and a bunch of animals attacked, and now I’ve been locked in the panther enclosure! Apparently some kind of animal akuma attack is going on currently. Stay safe, stay indoors, and keep updating the forums with any relevant info! I’ll be liveblogging my slow descent into madness stuck in here…_

An akuma attack! This was perfect! Now he could have an excuse to show off his powers at the Parisians, maybe even save a few of them, and then they’d all start appreciating him properly, just like Marinette had suggested to him!

He quickly checked the forums. Right, apparently all the animals had escaped from the zoo, and Ladybug and Chat Noir were somewhere near their school, busy hunting down the main akuma villain, who had been spotted transforming into different animals.

Wasn’t that just a lowkey, really lame version of Fang’s own powers? Hah, this akuma villain stood no chance. Time to go find them and save the day!

-

He managed to track down Ladybug and Chat Noir on one of the bridges near school. Paris had so many bridges it was ridiculous really, he couldn’t remember which one this was. It wasn’t the one with all the padlocks on it, he knew that much at least! How was anyone supposed to keep track of all these though? Served them right for building their city right in the middle of a river…

“Fang! Good to see you!”

Ladybug was waving at him, looking genuinely pleased. The next second, however, she had been pushed aside by Chat Noir, who came running over at top speed.

“FANG! You’re the alien! You’re that alien with superpowers! It’s so exciting to properly meet you!”

For a second Fang had to force himself not to tell this idiot that they were literally in the same class at school – spilling his secret out in the open like this wasn’t a good idea. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted to tell Adrien at all, actually. It wasn’t like they had exactly talked to each other.

“Are you here to help us?” Ladybug asked, walking over too.

“Yes,” he replied. “I mean, if you guys want my help, that is. You could always just struggle on your own without me instead, like usual…”

“No, we could use your help. There’s a lot of wild animals around right now and we can’t keep track of them while dealing with Animan at the same time – could you go and make sure the civilians are kept safe? Your particular powers would be good for that.”

The way she was talking right now, it was a little different to her usual _Marinette_ style of speaking. Less bubbly, more responsible. It seemed that she really did save her serious side for this superhero stuff. Ladybug was no-nonsense.

Wait, what had she said…

Go and help the civilians?

“Why can’t I fight the akuma villain?” he said.

Ladybug grinned at him in a suspiciously Marinette way – how could no one else ever tell it was her? She wasn’t even subtle. “I’m sure directly rescuing civilians would make you a lot more popular with them.”

“You think so?”

“Definitely!”

Was she lying? She probably just didn’t want to have to deal with him before she was used to his powers and his way of fighting. He understood that – he was an expert when it came to fighting alongside his friends, since he knew them so well, but these Parisian superheroes were still completely new to him. They might end up getting in his way, or vice versa. Not because any of them were incompetent – but just because they weren’t accustomed to each other’s fighting style yet.

Hmm, alright, Ladybug had brains, he had to admit…

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll… I’ll go rescue civilians…”

“We’ll send you a message if we need help!” Chat said. “See you later, Fang!”

Now _Chat Noir_ actually did act significantly different as a hero. Adrien was all polite and reserved and so far seemed like a total pushover. So he was actually a hyperactive dork sometimes too? Well, well, how interesting.

The heroes gave him a nod and then leapt off somewhere, presumably to go fight the akuma villain.

Okay. Cool. Now to go find some civilians in need of saving.

Fang turned and crossed the bridge. There seemed to be some panicked screaming coming from this direction, hopefully that was someone suffering. Not that he wanted anyone to suffer! But if they were suffering from an akuma attack in particular, then that was a good thing for him.

Heading into the street, he saw that some random Parisian was being chased by what looked like a huge bear. Ah, that explained the panicked screaming.

Barely even needing to try, Fang summoned his shadow powers and remotely grabbed the Parisian, lifting him into the air and plonking him down in a safer spot. Then he summoned a shadow bear of his own and told it to go push all the nearby parked cars in a row to keep the wild bear away from where it could harm anyone.

Huh, easy enough stuff. This wasn’t particularly interesting.

The civilian he had saved was running over in wonder. “You just saved my life! Hey you’re that alien, aren’t you? Jagged Stone’s sidekick? I saw it on the news!”

Some of the nearby apartment windows opened. He looked up to see people standing there watching him in awe, cheering and clapping. A few even had their phones out to record this.

Oh?

This was good! This was really, really good!

“Can I have your autograph?” the civilian asked now. “Ahhh I don’t have any paper on me… uh, will you sign this drawing app on my phone? I’ve got a stylus if you need it!”

He happily signed the guy’s phone. Oh, this was exactly what he needed! He had been looking for this kind of popularity since the moment he’d first got here!

Well, Marinette had been right, hadn’t she? Helping the city and saving civilians certainly was making him more popular. If he kept going, he might actually get on level with his classmates! And hopefully even higher!!!

“There’s a crocodile over there!” called one of the onlookers, pointing out of the window and down the street in fear.

Fang turned around, fury flooding him all of a sudden. Why did it have to be a crocodile?! All it did was remind him of that _other_ crocodile, the one who shared his name, the one that his own brother had heartlessly traded him for, the one who was currently off having fun with his own friends…

Sure enough, there was a crocodile pattering down the street directly towards the civilian who he had literally just saved. Well come on! How did anyone in this city ever survive these attacks? Surely they must all keep dying over and over and then getting revived with Ladybug’s healing magic. Wasn’t that horribly traumatic for them?

Maybe they were used to it… and anyway, it wasn’t like they had much of a choice…

He used his shadow powers to pull another car in the way. The crocodile could easily have crawled under it, but it seemed to not actually be in much of an attacking mood. It simply turned around and went the other way again.

Okay phew. The less effort he put in, the more impressive it would look to these Parisians, and the more they would adore him.

“You saved me again!” the civilian was saying now. “This is so freaking COOL! Hey, are you part of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s superhero team or something? Do you have a superhero name? Do you have a Miraculous?”

“Of course I don’t have a Miraculous!” Fang snapped. “I don’t need one of those bits of magic jewellery to use my powers!”

“Oh! Is it because you’re an alien? Do all of your species have powers like this?”

Fang hesitated. No, they did not all have powers like this. In fact, they were really very similar to humans – maybe sturdier, but aside from that, no particular powers at all.

Should he tell them about his power watch?

…Nah.

Plus, if Hawk Moth got knowledge of that, he’d probably start telling akuma villains to attack Fang and steal it for himself, so it was better if no one knew.

“I’m just special,” he said finally. “And I’m not bothering to hide my identity. My name is Fang.”

“Wasn’t that the name of Jagged Stone’s pet crocodile?”

Oh come on! He didn’t want to be compared to the crocodile again!

He was saved from further rage by another message on his phone. Oh – it was from Chat Noir apparently, who somehow had his number already.

_We’re being attacked by a literal dinosaur right now WE NEED BACKUP, PLEASE HELP FANG!!!_

A dinosaur??? There weren’t any dinosaurs left on Earth! Everyone knew that! This must be something to do with akuma magic.

“I have to go,” Fang told the civilian. “I need to go help Ladybug and Chat Noir fight a dinosaur…”

“Ooh good luck! Hey, you could always make a shadow dinosaur and then get your dinosaur to attack that dinosaur!”

Shadow dinosaur? Now there was an interesting idea…

Fang checked the location Chat Noir had sent him, then quickly made his way over there. He had almost reached when–

_“Miraculous LADYBUG!”_

A swirl of magic rushed over the city. It must have been Ladybug’s wave of healing, or whatever it was – the Ladyblog hadn’t bothered to describe it properly since apparently everyone just _knew_. It was the thing that fixed all the problems and brought dead people back to life or something.

But if Ladybug had used this power already, then surely that meant the battle was already over!

He ran round the corner to see that a rather confused-looking man was sat on the ground in a daze, a little white butterfly flapping away from him. In front were Ladybug and Chat Noir having already saved the day.

No! He was too late! He’d missed getting to see the dinosaur, and even worse, had missed getting his chance to actually fight an akuma villain and show up these dumb heroes!

Ladybug was holding her fist out for a fist bump from her partner. Instead Chat threw himself at her in a hug, almost crying.

“LADYBUG! I thought I had lost you! That was such a wild ride…”

His ring beeped, reminding him of his impending detransformation, and he grinned and rushed off. Ladybug turned to see Fang standing there.

“Oh, there you are! How did it go?”

He stormed over. “You defeated the villain without me?!”

She ignored that completely. “Mr Césaire has been de-akumatized now, could I ask you to please make sure he’s alright to get back to the zoo? His animals will be waiting for him there.”

More civilian babysitting. “Fine, whatever.”

“Great! I’ll uh… I’ll tell Marinette to meet you there. See you around, Fang!”

She sprinted off, her earrings beeping urgently.

Fang went over to the man who had just been de-akumatized. “You. Do you need help getting back to the zoo?”

The man stood up. “No, don’t worry, I’ll be fine…”

Oh, good, so babysitting wasn’t needed after all! He could go back home and scroll through the Ladyblog forums, basking in his newfound _saving people_ glory!

But wait… Ladybug had said that Marinette would meet him at the zoo…

Why did she want to meet him anyway? If they were going to talk fashion then she could have just gone over to his place instead like she was supposed to! He didn’t want to have to freaking meet up with her at the zoo, that was weird.

He was half tempted to just ignore her and go home.

But… but…

What if it was something important?

His conscience got the better of him. To the zoo it was.

-

Awkwardly following the de-akumatized zookeeper was not much fun, so he was glad to finally reach the zoo gates. Literally the second they had entered, one of his classmates with really stupid hair – Kim, was it? – ran up immediately.

“Excuse me Mr uh… Alya’s dad! I’m so sorry for being mean to your panther earlier, she’s very cool and can run faster than me and um… sorry for challenging her and getting you akumatized…”

Oh yeah, Fang remembered now. This Kim kid was pretty much the class daredevil. Challenging a panther to outrun him? Yep, that sounded exactly like something that idiot would do. He tuned out the conversation and walked past, only for Kim to run back over to him before he was even out of sight.

“Do you always run everywhere?” Fang asked immediately.

“Most places, yeah!” Kim replied, evidently unaware that Fang was trying to mock him. “Anyway you’re the alien, right? The one with superpowers?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you make a shadow panther?”

“What, you want to challenge it to a race or something?”

Kim’s eyes were gleaming. “Please! Can I? Can I race your shadow panther?”

“You really think you can outrun it? Of course you can’t!”

“I so can!”

Fang summoned a shadow panther beside him. Kim’s eyes were practically sparkling now.

_“So cool…”_

Fang couldn’t help feeling smug. “Heh, it is cool, isn’t it?”

“Can I race it?”

“Whatever. Knock yourself out.”

“Nice!!! Thank you, alien guy!” Kim turned to the panther. “Okay we’ll race two laps around the zoo, and try not to get kicked out or give anyone a heart attack. Got it? Ready, steady, GO!”

The two of them ran off at top speed. Predictably, the panther was already going much faster – Kim didn’t stand a chance. Not bothering to watch, Fang had a look round. Where was Marinette?

Oh, there she was. She was talking to Alya, looking like she was apologizing profusely for something, while Alya was laughing and patting her shoulder. Nino stood there too, awkwardly looking between them, not really doing anything.

Marinette had finished her apologies now – she turned and spotted Fang. “Oh! Hey! There you are!”

Before she could even say anything else, Alya had made her way over with her phone out. “Fang, is it true you were helping save people during this akuma attack? People keep talking about it on the forums!”

“Yep, it’s true,” he said, grinning. “I saved someone’s life. Twice.”

“That’s amazing! Keep up the good work! I’ve got to make a post about this… come on Nino! Let’s go get some food and then I’ll show you how I make blog posts…”

She left with Nino, leaving Marinette there alone with Fang. Immediately she took his arm and pulled him over into a corner, looking around to make sure no one else was nearby.

“Fang, I need to ask you something…”

“How am I so cool and awesome?” he suggested, still on a bit of a popularity high.

“No! But I was right, wasn’t I? You’re getting more popular now!”

He looked away. “Yeah, I guess… thanks for the tip about saving people.”

“Thank you too! You’re always free to help Ladybug and Chat Noir if you want.”

Oh, he’d definitely be helping, alright. The more civilians he could save, the more people he could impress, the better.

“I have a question for you,” she continued. “It’s a bit weird but… do you know Chat Noir’s identity too?”

“Yeah, of course. It’s just as obvious as you are.”

“Oh… well have you told him?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

He paused to think. Well, why hadn’t he told him? Or rather, why had he decided to tell Marinette?

“I haven’t talked to him as much as I’ve talked to you,” he admitted. “I… I kind of know you better. Because of that fashion thing, obviously! And because you keep doing stuff for Jagged Stone like some popularity-obsessed freak.”

She giggled and poked him in the arm. “Popularity-obsessed freak, huh? Sounds like someone else I know…”

“Anyway I’m not telling Chat Noir I know who he is!” he said quickly. “And I’m not telling you who he is either.”

“Thank you for that,” Marinette said, to his surprise. “It’s much safer if I don’t know. That’s why we’ve kept our identities a secret this whole time. So thank you for keeping his secret, as well as mine.”

“Whatever. I’m not doing it because it’s _noble_ or anything, okay? It’s just… if you want to know then figure it out for yourself, like I did.” He crossed his arms.

“I don’t want to know, so for now I’ll stay oblivious. Though I’m sure he wants to know who I am… He’s a little bit in love with me, I think…”

Pffff, a little bit, as if. Chat Noir was head-over-heels and all of Paris knew it. All of Paris shipped it, too. Chat was always flirting with his lady, giving her flowers, soft looks, cheesy pick-up lines, everything. And Fang had just witnessed that rather dramatic hug in place of the usual fist bump, for whatever reason that had been.

Oh yes. Chat Noir cared.

And then Fang remembered…

Chat Noir was _Adrien_.

But… but… Marinette liked Adrien!

And Marinette was Ladybug… and she liked Adrien, who was Chat Noir, who liked Ladybug, and they didn’t know each other’s identities…

Oh, okay.

_Wow._

That was a mess and a half right there.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Marinette said to him, giving him a smile. “Tell Jagged Stone I’m still working on those fashion ideas but I’ll have some ready soon!” With that, she left.

Why was she so nice to him all the time? He thought he had made his dislike of her very clear. Was she really just that grateful that he had helped Ladybug out earlier?

Not that he minded her being nice, but…

-

“Hi Fang!” Yaya said through the screen during their video call later. “How’s life in Paris going?”

“I need advice,” he said immediately. Yaya was smart, certainly the smartest of all his friends – if he was going to ask anyone about this, it had to be her.

“Oh sure! What is it?”

“So you know how Marinette is Ladybug and Adrien is Chat Noir, right?” he said. “Well Marinette likes Adrien, but doesn’t know that he’s Chat Noir, and Chat Noir likes Ladybug, but doesn’t know that she’s Marinette, so…”

He didn’t think he’d explained that very well, but somehow Yaya had understood. She scribbled out a diagram and held it up. “Like this?”

“Yeah, like that! Anyway, they’re not supposed to know each other’s identities because it would be dangerous if one of them got akumatized. So I can’t tell them. But like… it’s the stupidest thing ever and it’s going to bug me so much. Do I interfere? Do I get them together? Do I break them up horribly? What do I do?”

“Hmm…” She tapped her pen against her cheek in thought. “I think the best course of advice is to leave them be.”

“Seriously? Just do nothing?!”

“You shouldn’t mess with it. If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I can’t see them really having a chance unless they reveal their identities to each other, and like you said, they won’t be doing that.”

Yep, Yaya was super smart. Fang hadn’t realized that intelligence extended all the way to love advice – he had never seen that in action before, since it hadn’t ever been relevant. But apparently she was good at that, too.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll leave it alone. They don’t deserve my help anyway…”

“Good!” She gave him a very cheerful smile. “It’s so cute that you told Marinette that you know her identity, though!”

He did a double take. “Cute?! Wh-what do you mean _cute?!”_

“She gave you macarons, and you said she does that with all her friends! That means she wants to be your friend! And now you’re telling her secrets, and hanging out with her at the zoo… You want to be friends with her!”

“No I don’t!”

“But she’s the one you talk about the most!” Yaya said. “And the one you talk _to_ the most apparently, too, judging by that 2000-word email you sent the other day. The fourth one, I mean.”

“She’s not my friend,” he snapped. “I don’t even have any friends here.”

“Aw! You poor thing! Well why not make friends with Marinette then?”

“No way! I’m not making friends with Marinette, what even – why would you even say that? I don’t need friends here, I have you guys!”

“That’s very sweet, but you’ll get lonely fast. We’re going back to Earth soon to get back to school and we’ll be too busy with homework to talk to you often. Unless you make friends in Paris, you won’t have anyone to talk to!”

He fell silent at that. It was true, wasn’t it? The problem was, there wasn’t anyone here who he got along with enough and cared about enough to make friends with…

“You know what?” Yaya was saying now. “I’ve been inspired! I’m going to try making macarons.”

Oh god, Yaya cooking again – no, no, no, NO. Terrible idea. Absolute disaster. If there was one region where Yaya’s intelligence did NOT extend to, it was the culinary arts.

But on the other hand, it would be funny to know his other friends were suffering from having to eat Yaya’s macarons…

“Go for it!” he said.

“Thank you so much, Fang! You’re the only one who’s encouraged me so far! I know – I’ll have some of them delivered to Paris for you to eat too.”

“Uhhhh no don’t worry about that, they’ll um… they’ll go stale before they get here!”

“Oh, alright. But I’ll take pictures and send them to you.”

Phew, that was much better. At least a picture couldn’t knock him out on impact.

Yaya yawned. “It’s so late here, I’d better get to sleep… goodnight Fang! I hope you make some friends soon!”

“Goodnight,” he replied, giving her a final wave before hanging up.

Yeah… some friends here in Paris would be nice.

But – but not Marinette! No way! He wasn’t going to be friends with her, of course not. He couldn’t. And he didn’t talk about her _that_ much, seriously. If he did, that was her fault for being Ladybug as well as being Marinette. Because how could he talk about anything in Paris without constantly mentioning Ladybug? She was way too popular for her own good!

Heh… at least Fang himself was getting popular now too. Hopefully that would keep going, up and up and up.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, remembering I rated this fic T just so that I can drop in the occasional swear word whenever I feel like it: OH FUCK YES I CAN SWEAR

Marinette was not sure why Alya wanted her to be class rep so much. Yes, she would probably make a good one – but from Alya’s point of view, Marinette was a complete disaster! Always late for everything, always forgetting her homework, always being clumsy and dropping things all the time…

Not exactly shining class rep material. Though it was true that she would be better than Chloé. That was nothing special, though, it could be said for practically everyone in the class.

But no one else wanted to do it! Alya was too busy with the Ladyblog. Now they were going around asking everyone – so far Kim had dropped out due to Chloé threatening to tell everyone about his arachnophobia, Rose had been threatened with the closure of scrapbooking club, Alix simply “didn’t give a fuck” as she had so eloquently put it…

And Marinette couldn’t quite figure out how to explain to anyone why she herself didn’t have the time to do it. Only Fang knew she was Ladybug, so–

Oh! Oh yes! What about Fang?

She grabbed Alya’s sleeve and pulled her over to where Fang was standing in his usual corner, eating macarons and silently judging everyone. “Hey Fang! Are you going to run for class rep?”

“Nope,” he said.

“What? Why not?”

“Well why should I?”

“It would make you more popular!”

She had been sure that would work, but to her disappointment, for once the empty promise of popularity did nothing to persuade him. “No it won’t. One of my friends has been class monitor for several years running and all it does is make everyone scared of her.”

“Boy, your own attitude already does that for you,” Alya sighed, shaking her head. “Anyway, I already know about Yaya, your class monitor friend. She’s emailed me so many questions on my Ladyblog account. Seems to want to know literally everything there is to know about Paris.”

Fang rolled his eyes. “I’m not surprised.”

“She also sent me a very weird-looking cookie recipe as thanks…”

“Yeah, you should follow the recipe and make those Yaya cookies. Then you should eat them and also give them to everyone in this stupid class.”

“The fact that you said that makes me think I really shouldn’t.”

“Can’t you please run for class rep?” Marinette asked. “Otherwise it’ll end up being Chloé and we can’t have that!”

“Well…” He thought for a few seconds. “I’m not going to do it. But Marinette, if you run, I’ll vote for you over Chloé.”

“Wait… really?”

“Me and Chloé have a truce, meaning we’re not allowed to interact with each other. And voting for her would be counted as interacting, so… well…” He folded his arms and looked at the ground.

Oh? He would really vote for her? Truce with Chloé, yeah, whatever, that was clearly just an excuse, considering he wouldn’t look her in the eye. He really did think of her at least _slightly_ higher than he thought of Chloé…

“Thank you Fang!” she said. “I’ll consider it then.”

“Whatever, I don’t care.”

Sounded like he did care, at least a little bit. Marinette was really beginning to wonder if that was just how he was – that on in the inside, he maybe wasn’t as grumpy and aloof as he seemed. His insane jealous obsession with popularity just forced all the unpleasantness to the surface.

It must be like that, right? After all, he was friends with real superheroes! Superheroes who were just kids from Earth, the same as her. In that case he _must_ be friendly on the inside, under all those layers of sarcasm.

At least he was finally beginning to show it, even if just a tiny bit.

The bell rang for them to go back to class. Fang did not say a word to either of them – he simply stuffed another macaron in his mouth and walked off.

“So you’ll do it?” Alya asked, turning to Marinette. “You’ll run for class rep?”

Marinette sighed. “If I do, you’ll be my deputy and help me out, right?”

“Of course!”

“Oh, fine then, I’ll do it…”

“Awesome!” Alya gave her a quick hug. “Now all you have to do is beat Chloé in votes!”

Ah, of course, that was still there too. Yes, her classmates definitely liked her a lot more than they liked Chloé. But no doubt Chloé would be plotting something behind the scenes to ruin everything.

What had Marinette got herself into…

-

It was still weighing on her when she sat in her bedroom later, hurriedly scribbling all her class rep ideas into her diary while Tikki watched.

“Comfy seats, listening to music in the library, whatever Juleka was trying to say…” she mumbled, racking her brains for everything her classmates had ever expressed a wish for. “If I promise to make all these things happen, then they’ll definitely vote for me!”

Tikki launched into her usual words of support. “I’m sure you can do it! You’ll make an amazing class rep!”

“Aww, thank you!” Marinette closed her diary and popped it back into its box. “Everyone’s counting on me to beat Chloé… even Adrien, teehee…”

Her phone began ringing with a video call – oh, it was Alya. She picked up.

“Hey Alya, what’s up?”

Alya’s face popped onto screen looking much graver than usual. “We have a problem. Chloé’s invited everyone to the city hall to launch her campaign – including Jagged Stone!”

“Ooh, Jagged Stone is at city hall?” Marinette said, jumping to her feet. “That’s great!”

“No, not great! Chloé’s just using him to buy everyone’s votes with the promise of a free autograph!”

“What? That’s cheating!”

“I know, right?”

Marinette headed for the trapdoor leading out of her room. “I’ll be over as soon as possible to sort this out! I can’t let her get away with this…”

“Yeah, you’d better hurry. The rest of the class is already here.”

Already?! Chloé must have sent them all messages personally, therefore avoiding Marinette having any knowledge of this whatsoever. How rude was that?!

Well, it wasn’t going to work. Her classmates were too noble to be swayed by meaningless promises like this! She was going to make sure of it!

-

As soon as she reached city hall, she saw that Alya had been right – her classmates were all queueing up in front of a table where Jagged Stone sat with a pile of CDs ready to be autographed. Chloé herself was standing beside him making some kind of speech – clearly just more bribery.

“…and if you vote for me, you will be guaranteed free to tickets to Mr Stone’s next concert!”

Oh, that absolute pest! Marinette simply couldn’t stand her!

Wait – Chloé’s father, the mayor, was there too?! Did he not have anything better to be doing with his time, considering that he had just been re-elected the other day? He had a job to be getting on with, and yet here he was trying to make sure his own daughter turned out as vicious and corrupt as him!

Marinette was already annoyed. Watching Alya go up and get a signed CD did not help one bit. She waited for her to walk over and then stood in front with her arms crossed.

“Oh, I see you got an autograph?”

Alya jumped. “Shh! Look!” She pushed her over into the corner. “I got you one too, see? I’m so sorry, I couldn’t help myself…”

Alya held out a signed CD. For a few seconds Marinette contemplated taking it, but…

“No, I can’t,” she said. “It’s not right. And if you wanted Jagged Stone’s autograph, couldn’t you have just asked Fang? He’s his sidekick, he could easily get it!”

“As if Fang would willingly help anyone in this class!”

Well, he was helping Marinette, but only with fighting akuma villains, which she couldn’t exactly tell anyone about…

But it was true that he probably wouldn’t agree to getting anyone an autograph. It wasn’t like he had stopped _this_ from happening, after all.

In fact, there he was! Standing in the corner leaning against the wall in his usual emo pose!

“Fang!” Marinette pushed the CD back at Alya and went over to him. “Do you see this? Chloé’s just bribing everyone to vote for her!”

“I know,” he said, sounding just as annoyed about it as Marinette, thankfully.

“You’re Jagged Stone’s sidekick – can’t you put a stop to this?”

“Nah. I’m not allowed to interact with Chloé.”

“Oh but come on! This wouldn’t count as interacting!”

“The deal was, I wouldn’t bother her and she won’t bother me. So sorry, I can’t help.”

“Please? Can’t you just–”

“MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG, COME HERE!” Chloé was storming over to her. The next second she had grabbed Marinette’s jacket and began dragging her away.

“What do you want?!” Marinette snapped, yanking herself free.

“I need to talk to you, privately.”

“Well you could have said that first!” Marinette glanced over at poor Alya, who gave her a helpless shrug. “Fine, we can talk…”

“Good. Come here.”

Marinette followed Chloé behind one of the pillars, where Sabrina was standing with something funny clamped over the end of her arm.

Wait a second–

“My diary!” Marinette yelped, recognizing that little pink box. “How did you get that?!”

“Not important,” Chloé said, a smug look on her face. “The point is, unless you drop out of the vote, we’ll spread all your deepest secrets to everyone.”

“Um… what secrets? Hehe…”

“Well we’ll soon find out! Just as soon as I find a way to get this box open!”

Oh no, this was bad – this was _really bad_. If Chloé did manage to find a way to get the box off Sabrina’s arm, then Marinette’s diary would be free for her to read. All her gushing about Adrien was in there! And even worse, she wrote so much about being Ladybug in there! It wouldn’t just be embarrassing – it would be dangerous!

At least she’d had the forethought to load the box with a spring so that it would snap shut on anyone who touched it, and only she had the key to open it again…

“Maybe a chainsaw would work,” Chloé mused, much to Sabrina’s horror.

At that moment there was a tremendously loud fanfare from outside, making everyone jump. Marinette ran over to the doors and peeked through.

There was an army of knights out there.

Real medieval knights, in real metal armour. Helmets, plate-mail, everything.

Okay, this was definitely an akuma attack…

A few others had come over to watch what was going on through the crack of the barely-open door. One of the knights, the main one and most likely the original akuma villain, was speaking in incredibly old, formal French. He pointed his sword directly at the door and started threatening the mayor – only for the mayor to hurriedly slam the door shut again and run to hide.

Was this akuma villain one of the candidates who had lost the recent mayoral election? That seemed likely. Marinette looked out of the window to see that Chat Noir had already showed up and was trying to battle the entire knight army on his own. Poor kitty, he definitely needed a hand…

Alya was already on it. “Fang! You have superpowers, right? Why don’t you go out there and help Chat Noir?”

“You definitely should!” Marinette added, rushing back over to him. “I’m sure Ladybug would be very happy if you did that, whenever she shows up…”

Fang grinned. “Alright then. Ladybug can feel free to join me whenever she wants.”

“I’m sure she will!” Marinette tried not to sound too suspicious. “In the meantime I’ll stay here and get everyone to blockade the entrance.”

Alya gave her a gentle nudge with her elbow. “A good opportunity to show off your class rep skills, huh?”

“Exactly!”

“Alright then, see you in a bit,” Fang said, finally moving from the wall he had been leaning against and walking off.

Okay, good. He would keep the akuma villain busy for a bit and make sure that Chat Noir was doing fine. And as for Marinette, well, she would have to sort out her classmates first. Once that was done, she could transform and join them outside. Right now her class needed her!

-

Fang did not have any problem whatsoever fighting these knights. He was used to battles where they were vastly outnumbered, it was no big deal. He was also used to opponents who liked hitting him with swords – he had been trained a lot by Captain Kaizo, of course, and if there was one thing Kaizo liked doing, it was slicing people up with his sword.

“Hey, you’re really good!” Chat Noir said, impressed. “I have so got to get your autograph later! You’re the coolest alien I’ve ever met – well the only alien I’ve ever met–” He was interrupted by another knight attacking him.

Wow, Chat Noir really did seem to think Fang was cool. That was great! To be fair, Chat was the less popular of the superhero duo. While he had his fans, they were nothing compared to the praise and adoration that Ladybug got. Maybe Adrien liked it better like that – he seemed to actually be quite put-off by all the attention he got as his civilian model self.

Pfff, all that popularity wasted on someone who didn’t even _like_ it…

The front door of the city hall opened and out stepped Jagged Stone, guitar out and already strumming.

What the heck was he doing?!

Fang went over and shoved him back inside. “Mr Stone, there’s an akuma attack right now, you’re meant to stay inside.”

“An akuma attack? I thought those were the sounds of my fans! I wanted to perform for them!”

“Your FANS?! These are knights! How – how did you even – how high are you right now?”

Jagged frowned. “Aren’t you like 10? You’re not supposed to know what drugs are…”

Fang just slammed the door shut without responding. Hopefully Marinette would hurry up and get her classmates to barricade the door, like Parisians were good at doing, and then hurry up and transform and actually defeat this villain.

Said villain was currently commanding his knights to start catapulting themselves up onto the roof of the building. He had a giant flag in his hand alongside the huge sword he was carrying.

Fang looked up at the roof. There was a French flag flying up there. Oh – the villain was probably trying to replace the tricolour with his own emblem. Fang wondered if he should go fight the villain himself, but then again there wasn’t really any point – if he did defeat the villain and release the akuma, without Ladybug there it couldn’t be properly purified and would just go infect someone else. Not to mention, if she hadn’t used her Lucky Charm power yet, then she would have no way of fixing all the damage that the attack had done.

No, for now Fang had to just hold off these knights and wait, even if he _knew_ he was perfectly capable of defeating the villain himself…

Would this happen every time? It would, wouldn’t it? The only one who could ever truly save the day was Ladybug! Fang would always just be an afterthought!

The bug herself finally showed up shortly, leaping out of one of the windows and thereby making it _extremely obvious_ to anyone paying attention that she must have been one of the civilians inside the building at the time, which for now was pretty much only Ms Bustier’s class.

Seriously, just HOW had no one figured out her identity yet? She wasn’t good at hiding it at all!

“Thanks for your help, Fang!” she called out to him in her Responsible Ladybug Voice. “I’ll take it from here. _Lucky Charm!”_

This was the first time Fang had directly seen her using her ultimate power, aside from blurry videos on the Ladyblog. She threw her yoyo up in the air and a flash of light later, something tiny dropped down into her hands. She looked at it for a second, then looked at her surroundings.

“Oh! I know what to do with this!”

The remainder of the battle was very short. Apparently the Lucky Charm object had been some kind of wind-up toy, which she had tossed into an open spot in the villain’s armour, who had then dropped his sword, and she’d gone and smashed the akuma out of it…

As the world healed around them, Fang took out his phone and checked the Ladyblog quickly to see if Alya had been recording him and making him even more famous by any chance. But she hadn’t. Maybe she’d been a little too busy inside.

He sighed. Popularity just didn’t come easy, did it?

Oh, and he had a missed call from Ying too…

The villain had transformed back into his civilian self, and all his sidekick knights had returned to their normal state too. Ladybug and Chat Noir were about to do their fist bump. Then Ladybug turned to Fang and waved him over.

“Hey! Do you want to join us?”

“Did I even help enough to join?” he muttered.

To his surprise, Chat spoke up. “Of course you did! I was having some real trouble with those knights, it was a KNIGHTmare! You’re kind of part of our team now, right? You get to do the fist bump too!”

“Fine, whatever…”

He went over and rather awkwardly joined in their fist bump. Honestly, he still felt a lot like a third wheel around them. They knew each other well, they knew what they were doing, they were used to all this…

“I have to go, see you!” Chat Noir finger-gunned at them and then ran off.

“Seriously, thank you for your help,” Ladybug said. She looked around and lowered her voice. “I’ll see you inside in a minute, okay?”

With a swing of her yoyo she was gone.

Fang headed back into the building. Most of the classmates were busy removing all the furniture that they had stacked up everywhere as a barricade – all except Chloé, who was yelling at poor Sabrina about something, as usual.

Whatever, he didn’t care about any of this. He went up the stairs and found himself a quiet area, then tried to call Ying back.

Oh yes, now he remembered, he had said he would call her, since he was taking it in turns to call all his friends each day… And the time difference between here and Malaysia, where she would be back in right now, meant that he would have to call pretty soon after school so that it wouldn’t be too late at night for them. Well, not that any of them ever went to sleep on time anyway, but still.

The phone rang and rang, then eventually went off. Huh, maybe she had already gone to sleep? He would just have to call her tomorrow then.

He went back down the stairs, only to see that Marinette was there at the bottom, giving some kind of speech to all her classmates while Chloé watched in despair. Fang did not much care about whatever drama was going on there – and he wasn’t supposed to be interfering with Chloé’s life anyway – but hey, maybe it would be entertaining! He stopped to listen.

“…and I don’t want you all to vote for me just because you don’t like Chloé – I want you to vote for me because you really believe in me and want me to be your class rep! I won’t make any promises I can’t keep, and I’ll try to do my best to help you all, no matter how much homework I have. Being your class rep would be an honour, and I believe I have what it takes, if you all believe it too. In this election, vote for me! Vote for Marinette!”

The entire class began applauding. Hah, even Sabrina! Chloé stormed off in a huff.

Fang had to stop himself from applauding without thinking too. That speech had been very… _Ladybug_.

Marinette really was good at getting people to support her, wasn’t she?

He couldn’t even deny that it was working on him a little bit too. She was… very good at things. Very good at saving the city, very good at being there for her friends too.

No, he just couldn’t deny that…

-

Ying called back once he was already back in his room later, trying to do his homework.

“Ying? Isn’t it late night there?”

“Sorry I couldn’t get your call earlier, you’ll never believe what happened!” she said at top speed. Well, she always said everything at top speed.

“Why, what happened?”

“Yaya forced us to eat the macarons she made! I was passed out for like 2 hours!”

Fang just about managed not to laugh. “Were they better or worse than her cookies?”

“A bit better, ‘cause at least I’m not dead!” She gave him a wink. “So anyway how’s Paris life going? Did you meet that little rat yet? The one who lives in that guy’s hair and teaches him how to cook?”

“Of course not!” he snapped. “I did fight an akuma today though. It was alright. Ladybug saved the day properly, as usual, and as Marinette she’s running for class rep and has everyone wrapped around her finger, just like always…”

“You know,” Ying said, a grin on her face, “it’s funny how in your stupidly long daily emails, you talk about Marinette much more than about Adrien. I thought Adrien was the famous model guy who’s on like every billboard, so shouldn’t he be the one you’re mad at? Should you be ranting loads about him instead?”

“But… but Marinette’s the one who’s Ladybug!”

“So what? They’re both popular heroes! Why is Marinette the one you’re always obsessing over?”

“I’m not obsessing over her!” Fang said quickly, his cheeks heating up all of a sudden. From rage, obviously. “I just – I just have to talk to her more often, because she’s always over doing stuff for Jagged, or being my fashion advisor… I mean she’s only done that once so far but… oh I don’t know! She just talks to me more so she’s more annoying!”

Ying shrugged. “Okay! Next question from me: do you guys not have a school uniform? I never see you wearing it no matter what time you call.”

“French kids don’t have school uniforms.”

“Whoa, really? You just wear normal clothes to school?”

“Yep.”

“Does that Adrien kid wear his model clothes to school?”

“Yes, he does.”

She laughed. “Paris sounds awesome! I really wanna visit!”

“Please do, I hate it here, I could use a friend…”

“Aww, you miss us!”

“Well of course I miss you!” He hated saying it, but it was true. He missed his friends.

“We miss you too! But still, it’s so cool you get to be in freaking _Paris!_ Helping out French superheroes! Oh, uh… is it true they’re really cute?”

“I… what?!”

Ying was grinning again. “They look like it from that Ladyblog website Yaya keeps showing us. And all the comments on there say so too. Ladybug and Chat Noir are cute, right?”

“It doesn’t matter if they are or not!” Fang said. “And anyway, I know who they are as civilians, so it’s just weird treating them like some celebrities to stan…”

“Haha, alright, I get it. Anyway…” She yawned. “It’s super late here, and I’ve got school tomorrow, so I’m gonna go to sleep now. Keep us updated with your adventures! I’m looking forward to the next instalment of your Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

“My _what?!”_

“That’s what I’m calling your emails! It’s my new soap opera. Gopal said he’s going to print them out and sell them.”

Fang made a mental note to murder Gopal as soon as possible. “Just go to sleep, Ying.”

“Will do! Goodnight, Fang!” She winked at him again.

“Yeah, goodnight.”

He ended the call.

Seriously! He did NOT obsess over Marinette! Why would anyone even think that?!

He sat back in his chair and scrolled back through the emails he had been sending his friends, just to check.

Oh…

Oh, yeah… okay, there was a lot about Marinette in here…

Well fine! So what? She was just his – his _rival!_ That was all! His rival in popularity. Someday he would get more popular than her, and then he’d stop needing to talk about her so much. Yeah, that was it. He just needed to get more popular.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here in my time zone it's almost Fang's birthday (13th April) and I haven't actually done anything for it so uh... pretend this random chapter is a birthday present? Happy birthday Fang!!!
> 
> Fun fact: Sweden's 2011 Eurovision entry was a song simply called "Popular" by Eric Saade, and it's literally just Fang as a song. The chorus is like "I WILL BE POPULAR, I WILL BE POPULAR" and that's where I got the title of this fic. It's really catchy, you should give it a listen!

It turned out that there were akuma attacks in Paris almost every single day. Most of the time they didn’t turn out to be a huge deal – for example, there was this one guy who was obsessed with pigeons for some reason, and he was constantly getting akumatized over it. Luckily he wasn’t too difficult to ever defeat. Nor were any of the others.

Still, Fang couldn’t help feeling side-lined all the time! Ladybug and Chat Noir were a duo, everyone knew that. They were partners, teammates, friends. And what was Fang? Just some awkward hanger-on whose only achievements of merit were rescuing nearby civilians who accidentally got in harm’s way!

At least it was making him mildly popular throughout the city…

Maybe he would get more used to them over time. Until then, he would just have to grit his teeth and bear it.

Of course, it wasn’t easy to just ignore how ridiculously admired and well-liked those two were even as civilians. Adrien was the same as always, getting mobbed by paparazzi if he went anywhere without his bodyguard, and as for Marinette – she was class rep now! It was worse than ever! Everyone was appreciating her even more than they’d done before, it was so infuriating beyond belief!

The only petty thing Fang allowed himself to do was to tell Marinette that he didn’t want any of her fashion advice until she had given him carrot macarons. That wasn’t _too_ petty, was it? Anyway, he had been waiting for those carrot macarons for weeks now! Yes, she was busy, her parents were busy too… but that was their own fault!

In the meantime he’d have to make do with all the other flavours they had. To be fair, they were very good, and he really couldn’t deny that, especially since he wouldn’t stop eating them…

-

One weekend morning he had been dragged along to some reality TV show that Jagged Stone was taking part in, as part of his sidekick duties. At least he didn’t have to leave the hotel for it! And apparently it was a cooking show, so maybe he’d get some nice food at the end of it.

He stood leaning against the wall in the corner of the room behind all the cameras, vaguely listening as the TV show host explained to Jagged what was going on.

“…The chef is currently in the kitchens preparing his meal. You and the other judges will taste it, then give a score out of 10…”

From the looks of it the other judges were Chloé, her father, and the hotel restaurant’s head chef, who Fang was pretty sure was just Alya’s mother.

Great, more free popularity for his classmates…

He sighed, looking out of the window instead. Hopefully nothing out there would unnecessarily annoy him the same way that everything in here did.

A few minutes later the chef himself entered with several bowls of soup for the judges to taste, followed by…

_Marinette???_

What the heck was _she_ doing here?! And not just Marinette, but Adrien too! Why were they here? Why would they have anything to do with this weird cooking show?

They spotted him in the corner and gave him a wave, but he turned his nose up and did not wave back. Surely they weren’t going to be on TV! They already got enough publicity as it was!

The cameras began rolling, the TV host began talking…

Sounded like the chef was one of the most renowned in the world, from the little that Fang could be bothered to listen to. Not only that, but the chef was Marinette’s uncle.

Yep. Marinette literally had a world-famous chef as her uncle.

As if she needed any more popularity than she already had!! Why was she just so ridiculously _special?_ Like what was she, some kind of anime protagonist or something?!

Fang didn’t dare move from his corner – if he did, he might have ended up unleashing a shadow tiger and just destroying everything out of sheer rage and annoyance.

Seriously!!! Marinette’s uncle!!! A world-famous chef!!! On Parisian television!!!

-

Gabriel Agreste, off in his house a few streets away, sensed a strong negative emotion. He hurried into his lair and let Nooroo out to transform–

“Master, it’s just the alien again!” Nooroo warned.

“What? Again?!”

“Yes! It’s Fang’s negative emotions that you are sensing.”

Gabriel rubbed his aching forehead. “This is already the fifth time this has happened! If only he wasn’t an alien, I would have been able to akumatize him on so many occasions! Why must he have such strong negative emotions, and so frequently, all it does is mess with me…”

Nooroo spoke very hesitantly. “Since he has also teamed up with Ladybug and Chat Noir, maybe it’s… maybe it’s a sign that this won’t work, and you could give up–”

“No!” Gabriel clenched his fist. “I can’t give up. I’ll just akumatize someone else…”

Ah yes – he was sensing another negative emotion now, one that was even stronger, and from a very similar place. Perfect! Time to transform.

-

Even through the rage, Fang paid enough attention to notice that the chef’s soup had been a complete disaster and all the judges hated it. On the one hand, served Marinette right! But on the other hand, this wasn’t Marinette, it was technically nothing to do with her – it was her uncle. And the poor guy looked extremely disheartened about it.

Was he about to get akumatized? Eh, there was probably about a 50/50 chance of it happening. Sometimes people got mad without getting akumatized, because presumably Hawk Moth did have an actual life and did things other than akumatizing people 24/7.

Fang watched as Marinette and Adrien, looking rather upset too, headed off downstairs. Alright, he could understand why Marinette was here – to support her uncle of course. But what was Adrien Agreste doing here?! Surely Marinette hadn’t somehow plucked up the courage to ask him to accompany her?

Ignoring Chloé like he was supposed to, he went over to Jagged Stone. “Um, can I go downstairs? My classmates are here so…”

“Oh yeah, Marinette!” Jagged replied, a smile popping back onto his face. “Sure, go say hi to her for me! Meanwhile I’ll try and get the gross taste of this soup out of my mouth.”

Well none of them had fainted, so the soup surely couldn’t have been _that_ bad. These losers needed to try Yaya’s cookies, then they’d truly know what bad food was. Fang turned and headed for the lift.

Down on the ground floor, he saw Marinette and Adrien standing over by the reception, chatting with each other. He strode over immediately.

“What the hell are you doing here?!”

They whirled around to look at him, startled.

“Oh, hi Fang!” Marinette said. “I’m here because–”

“Because your super famous uncle is being famous and popular, I know,” he snapped. “I don’t mean you. I mean Adrien! What’s he doing here, huh?”

Marinette had gone bright pink and was starting to do her stupid and yet kind of adorable _Adrien-is-nearby_ giggle. “Well you see, um… my uncle doesn’t speak much French, but Adrien takes Mandarin lessons! So h-he agreed to come over and… and translate, hehe…”

“It was a great opportunity to practise my Mandarin,” Adrien added, polite as usual. “Not to mention, being able to meet a fantastic chef like Cheng Shifu!”

Fang just stared for several seconds. “Marinette… why didn’t you ask me?”

“What?” She was going even more pink.

“ _I_ speak Mandarin!”

“Wait, what?”

“I’ve told you already! I know Mandarin! Fluently!”

“Oh! Oh yes, I forgot…”

“You speak Mandarin?” Adrien asked, his eyes lighting up. “Oh, that’s fantastic! Maybe you can help me with my pronunciation! And vocab! Ahhh, this is so cool, I haven’t had any friends who speak it before!”

Fang had to bite his tongue to stop himself snapping that they were _not_ friends. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because I’m pretty sure your uncle is about to get akumatized, so–”

At that moment the cameraman ran down the stairs at top speed and towards the front doors of the hotel. “THERE’S AN AKUMA IN THE HOTEL, EVERYONE RUN!”

Fang just sighed. “Yep, what did I tell you…”

He briefly wondered what kind of akuma villain it would be this time. Wang Cheng was a chef, right? No doubt he would have some kind of food powers. Perhaps he could turn stuff into food, just like Gopal. In that case there was at least a small chance of him making red carrot donuts! That would be awesome, Fang had missed those so much.

A tiny dumpling with wings flew over to them and projected a mini-screen out in front, displaying the face of what could only be the akumatized form of Marinette’s uncle. Ah right – maybe making tiny flying dumplings was his akuma power.

“It’s not polite to leave the table without permission!” he said up on the screen. “Cut off all exits!”

The next second, something gloopy and bright orange began rolling down the windows outside, seemingly encasing the entire building. Whatever it was, it began seeping inside too under the cracks between the walls and the floor.

Adrien ran over to the window. Then he knelt down, stuck his finger in the goop, and licked it.

Right. That was a very stupid thing to do, so despite the differences, there was zero doubt whatsoever that this boy was Chat Noir.

“It’s caramel!” he said, standing back up. “It’s delicious but it’s blocking the exits, so no one can get out…”

“Did you seriously just eat that goop off the floor?!” Fang asked.

Adrien looked a little taken aback. “Well… it looked like some kind of food! Smells like it too!”

“Come on Fang, I bet you’d eat it too if it was carrot-flavour,” Marinette said, grinning and giving Fang a nudge.

“No I wouldn’t!” he lied. “Anyway Adrien, go wash your hands, that stuff was literally on the floor just now…”

Adrien nodded, relieved. “Uhhh yes I’ll go do that! I’ll go wash my hands! You guys stay safe until Ladybug and Chat Noir show up!”

He ran off, obviously to go hide somewhere and transform. Fang kept his mouth shut about it – clearly Marinette still didn’t know yet.

Marinette herself was looking a little relieved. “Okay good, he’s gone, I can go transform now before he gets back…”

“I can’t believe you’re swooning over a guy who just eats gunk right off the floor.”

“Wh-what do you mean?!” she said quickly, blushing again.

“I know you like Adrien. That’s why you asked him to help you with the Mandarin, isn’t it?”

She giggled a bit. “Alya suggested it, but yeah. I would have asked you if I’d remembered, though! Don’t worry!”

“Eh, whatever…”

“And don’t tell anyone I like Adrien!”

“Of course I won’t,” he assured her. “I mean, I’ve kept your other secret, haven’t I?”

“Yes, you have…”

The akuma villain was doing some kind of villainous monologue again up on the dumpling screen. “Everyone who has tasted my soup will become my slaves. And then Kung Food will be the greatest chef in the world! Hahahaha!”

“Oh, my poor uncle,” Marinette muttered.

“Need me to do anything?” Fang asked.

“Hmm… your shadow powers are very strong, right? See if you can break the caramel that’s encasing the building. I’ll transform and go upstairs to see if I can find my uncle.”

“Alright.” He went over to the door and summoned his shadow fingers, ready to see if he could prise it open. Or should he just punch it really hard and smash it open? Summon a shadow dragon to fuse with and breathe shadow-fire at it? Ladybug would fix it anyway, right?

A few seconds later he heard surprised voices behind him.

“Ladybug???”

“Chat Noir???”

Huh, those two must have transformed already and made their way back here. And naturally, because humans were idiots, they didn’t realize that they clearly had to both be inside the building and near the ground floor to be able to be here right now, and then narrow it down…

“Hey Fang!” Chat Noir called, waving. “Good to see you here too!”

“Please keep trying to find a way out of the building!” Ladybug said. “Chat and I will go upstairs and find Kung Food!”

He shrugged. “Fine. See you.”

“Bye!”

They ran off towards the lifts.

Yeah, as usual, he was off on the side doing his own thing, while those two worked as a team and saved the day together…

He couldn’t help it. It really just felt like he didn’t belong here. He was meant to be back in Malaysia, with his own friends! Not here in Paris, intruding on these two who would be perfectly fine without him, and were really just humouring him by letting him stick around and help out!

Not to mention, he felt incredibly sorry for them. They didn’t even know each other’s identities! If it wasn’t for the fact that it would be dangerous, he’d just tell them. Shove them into the lift to the top of the Eiffel Tower so they could go and sort out their weird love drama together in peace.

But he couldn’t, so instead here he was, literally trying to _punch caramel_ because they didn’t have anything better for him to do which they couldn’t already do themselves…

There was some kind of commotion going on near the lifts. Fang turned around to see that Jagged Stone was there, holding what looked like a massive sword made of oysters, and was swinging it around while Ladybug and Chat Noir dodged for their life.

Oh? Had Jagged been hypnotized or something?

Well Kung Food had said that anyone who had tasted his soup would become his slave, so…

Fang sent a shadow hand over, picked hypnotized Jagged up off the floor, then flung him into the nearest room and shut the door. Chat quickly shoved a chair in front of it to block it from being opened again.

“Thanks for your help!” Ladybug said, beaming at Fang. “You know… why don’t you come upstairs with us actually? We could use a hand!”

“A shadow hand, to be precise!” Chat added.

Fang paused to think for a few seconds, then shook his head. “Nah, you guys go do it on your own.”

“Huh?”

He didn’t know quite how to explain that being a third wheel was worse than not being a wheel at all. And anyway, if this entire building was blocked by caramel, then no one would be able to see him actually doing anything, so he wouldn’t get any more popular…

“I’ll stay here and make sure Jagged Stone doesn’t break out,” he said.

“Um… okay!” Ladybug gave him a wave. “See you later then!”

Those two disappeared off into the lift.

Fang didn’t even bother trying to break the caramel case anymore. He sat down on the nearest chair and pulled out his phone to video call his friends back home. Whose turn was it today? Oh yes, Gopal. Time to call Gopal.

The hyper dork that he was, Gopal picked up barely the second it had started ringing. “FANG!!!”

“Hi Gopal,” Fang said.

“I’ve so been looking forward to speaking to you again! There’s so much I have to tell you!”

“Cool. I’m going to hire an assassin to murder you, by the way.”

Gopal’s smile instantly vanished. “Hey! What for?”

“Because Ying said you were going to sell my emails to everyone!”

“Well of course I am!” Gopal pulled down a chart from seemingly nowhere and began pointing at it with a ruler. “Look at this graph! Interest in your Parisian adventures has increased at school, leading to a high demand for details. If I provide those details, at a price of course, then my income will skyrocket!”

“You can just _tell people_ about it, you know. No need to literally print out my emails and get everyone to read them, sheesh!”

“But your emails are so much fun!” Gopal rolled the chart up again. “The way you write about Marinette is just so captivating!”

“Oh, uh… is it?” Fang was not sure whether or not to be flattered.

“Yes! You make her sound so cool!”

“What? No I don’t!”

“Anyway, it’s too late. I’ve already sold 50 copies.”

Fang resisted the urge to chuck his phone against the wall. “Gopal!”

“Don’t worry, I censored out the bits about Marinette and Ladybug being the same person! We can’t have everyone on Rintis Island knowing about that or the news will end up spreading to Paris too, I know. Her secret is safe with just the few of us.”

He calmed down a little at hearing that. “Well I guess that’s not too bad…”

“I also censored out all the swearing, or otherwise it might end up banned at school. My best customer so far is Fang, by the way. The other Fang I mean. The crocodile one.”

Alien Fang did a double take. “Excuse me?”

“Oh yeah, he’s in our class now too by the way! The school uniform looks great on him! Teacher Papa Zola considers him one of the best students.”

“Hey! How could you? That crocodile is NOT better than me, okay?! Don’t you go forgetting who your real friend Fang is! And it’s not that dumb crocodile! He’s just–”

“You’re getting jealous, huh?” Gopal was looking just a little too smug. “It’s funny how popular this crocodile is, actually.”

“THE CROCODILE IS POPULAR???”

Gopal chuckled. “Adu Du tried to attack during class, and the crocodile chased him off. So yes, he’s very popular right now.”

Fang leapt to his feet. “You tell Ochobot to teleport me over there _right now_ –”

“Yo, relax! If I keep selling your emails, you’ll surely end up more popular than the croc!”

“I… Are you sure?”

“Do I need to show you the graph again?”

Fang took a few deep breaths, trying to get his rage under control. “Hmmm… okay… _fine_ …”

“Good. Now…” Gopal cleared his throat. “Tell me about Marinette.”

“Huh, what? Why?”

“I need my daily Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng update and you haven’t sent an email yet! So just tell me in person first! I need to know everything. Give me the latest scoop.”

Fang rolled his eyes. Why was Gopal so nosy about his life? Well, to be fair, he had definitely been oversharing a lot in his emails, so he may as well continue…

He explained the events of the day to Gopal, who not only listened diligently, but also began taking notes for some reason. It took quite a long time. Probably because he kept going off on tangents about how annoyed he was about everything, and the ranting took up the bulk of the time. No wonder his emails ended up with such long word counts. It must have been a lot less coherent, spewing it all out loud like this.

Halfway through he noticed that the caramel encasing the building was gone – Ladybug must have saved the day. He paid it no heed and continued talking to Gopal.

“Thank you for these very interesting juicy details,” Gopal said at the end of it, rubbing his hands together. “I’m sure everyone at school will love this next chapter.”

“Hope you got enough notes there,” Fang muttered.

“What? Oh, I wasn’t taking notes, I was just drawing!” Gopal held up the piece of paper to reveal that it was covered in doodles of various bits of food. “Anyway, I’ve got homework to be procrastinating on, so I should probably go play video games now. Thanks for the chat, Fang! I’ll let you know how the sales go!”

“And keep track of my popularity please,” he added. “Make sure it’s better than that… that crocodile…”

“No worries, I will! Bye Fang!”

“Bye.”

Wow… over an hour on the call. Fang really was starting to miss his friends’ company a lot more than he had realized he would. Getting to speak in Malay again was pretty refreshing too, even if he was used to French by now.

At least he could count on Gopal to keep his popularity up while he was away. If there was one thing Gopal was good at, it was hyping up his friends. The problem was that the friend Gopal was hyping up was usually Boboiboy, not Fang! Hopefully this time things would be different.

He got up from his seat, only to see the lift doors open and out walk Marinette. What did she want now?!

“Hey Fang!” She went right up to him immediately. “You didn’t come back upstairs after the battle, are you okay?”

“Where’s Adrien?” he asked, noticing that Marinette was alone this time.

“Oh, he’s up in the restaurant with my uncle,” she replied. “Actually, my uncle remade the soup and he showed me how to make it this time! And then we re-did the judging, and this time he did really well! So we’re celebrating! I wanted to ask if, um… do you want to join us? Come and have some soup?”

Fang hesitated.

“Seriously, are you alright?” Marinette asked, looking at him in concern. “You didn’t even join in the battle properly.”

“I didn’t want to,” he admitted. “You guys are already a team. My powers don’t work the same way as yours, it’s all different. I don’t fit in with your duo.”

“But–”

“It’s okay, I don’t care! Honestly. If you need help during battles then yeah, I’ll do it, obviously. I’ll still help you. But don’t expect me to _be_ one of you, because I’m not.”

She nodded. “Yeah… I mean, you really are an outside-context solution to our akuma problem, aren’t you? Your thing is space and aliens and robots, our thing here is magic and butterflies…”

Phew – she understood what he meant. “Exactly. I’m not one of you. Well… not in the superhero way anyway.”

He was, at least a little bit, wondering if he could start to consider himself a _Parisian_. In that case he really would be one of them. But he wasn’t a magical French superhero with a Miraculous. In that way, he was NOT one of them.

“No problem,” she said, smiling at him rather sweetly.

Oh, she was being overly nice to him again… probably trying to _make friends_ again…

“Because I’m better, obviously,” he said quickly.

He had been expecting her to drop the smile, but instead she just giggled. “Being a tsundere again, are you?”

“What?! I – I’m not a–”

“I also wanted to ask you something else,” she said, sounding more serious all of a sudden and lowering her voice substantially. “You know who I am, and you know who Chat Noir is… Do you, by any chance, know who Hawk Moth is too? Have you figured that out?”

Fang wracked his brains. He had very briefly heard Hawk Moth’s voice, back when he’d almost been akumatized… but no, it didn’t ring any bells. And he could barely even remember it now anyway. It just sounded like the typical evil villain voice to him, nothing special.

“Sorry, I have no idea,” he said. “But if I figure it out, I’ll tell you. I promise.”

“Thanks.”

She held her hand out for a fist bump. For several seconds Fang just looked down at it, the two halves of his brain fighting over whether he should actually do it or not.

Fist bumping was a friendly thing! He couldn’t do that!

But come on, this was just Marinette. Technically he’d already done it before a few times, when she was Ladybug. It wasn’t any different from that.

But it was different! The context was different! This was clearly a friendship fist bump.

Well, would that really be so bad?

“It’s just a fist bump!” she said, almost like she could read his mind.

Oh, the way she was smiling at him, just as sweet as her macarons, being genuinely nice to him despite his less-than-cordial attitude towards her in the past…

Fine. He quickly fist bumped her in return and then wiped his hand on his jacket. It seemed to make her happy, at least – her smile grew even brighter.

“So do you want to try some of the soup I was telling you about? The soup my uncle made?”

He was getting a bit hungry. “Yeah, sure.”

“Awesome! Come on then!”

He followed her over to the lift, where she suddenly stopped and turned to face him again, looking a bit nervous.

“Uh… just to warn you, my uncle has renamed the soup ‘Marinette Soup’ after me, so um…”

“He WHAT?!”

She hurriedly stepped into the lift and dragged him in too. “Just thought I should tell you now before you find out later and blow your top in front of everyone!”

Marinette!!! Getting a world-famous soup named after her!!!

And now she had the audacity to judge his reaction perfectly, knowing exactly how much his rage and jealousy would spike on hearing something like that!

Okay well… that was…

…kind of funny, he had to admit.

“This soup had better be tasty enough to cheer me up,” he said, trying not to smile.

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Phew, you’re not that mad…”

“I so am mad!”

“Hehe, sure you are…”

She really was starting to know him too well! It was infuriating!

A little refreshing too, though. No one else here knew him well yet. Penny and Jagged were constantly busy with their own stuff, the rest of his classmates weren’t very keen on trying to break through his fiery hot pepper demeanour…

For now, it was actually kind of nice to have Marinette around. Sometimes. A little bit.

Even if she did have a freaking soup named after her!

-

For several days in a row, Marinette was too busy for her liking. She wanted to make those carrot macarons for Fang, but whenever she had free time the kitchen was already in use by her parents! It was so inconvenient!

In the meantime she continued thinking about new fashion for him. It was a fun pastime, really – he would make a really good model. Usually Marinette was constantly imagining Adrien wearing whatever designs she dreamed up, but now she had a new source of inspiration. Their styles were very different of course, she would have to take that into account too.

She seriously hoped to get some free time soon…

Unfortunately Hawk Moth had other ideas.

There had already been times where Ladybug and Chat Noir needed to fight two akuma villains within the same day. But usually, one would be in the morning while the other would be in the evening.

This was the first time that they were directly one after another!!!

Marinette, as Ladybug, had already used her Lucky Charm on akumatized Sabrina and was well on her way to detransforming when Chloé Bourgeois hopped up onto the hotel entrance, akumatized and ready to fight.

All Marinette could do was rush off to hide before her detransformation and hope that Chat could keep Chloé – well, Antibug – occupied for now…

“Tikki, I don’t have any cookies!” she whispered frantically.

“It’s okay!” Tikki said, though clearly pretty exhausted. “You’ll find some!”

“But I need to find some quickly and go help Chat Noir! Unless…”

No, it was a complete long shot. But she had to try. She got out her phone and called up Fang.

“Fang! I need your help!”

“No, I’m not helping you fight Chloé,” he said immediately.

“Please? I’ve had to detransform and I don’t have any cookies to feed Tikki, so Chat Noir is all by himself–”

“Tikki eats cookies?!”

“Uh yes… why?”

He sounded horrified. “Oh, nothing…”

Well, now she was intrigued! “What’s wrong with cookies?”

“My friend Yaya is what’s wrong with cookies. I can’t eat cookies ever again thanks to her.”

“Wow! Are her cookies really that bad?”

“Yes! If you eat one, you’ll die!”

Marinette had a thought. “Hey Fang, do you think you could go get me some cookies? As soon as possible? It won’t count as interacting with Chloé, I swear!”

“Sure. Where are you?”

“Just near the hotel entrance.”

“Cool, I’ll get some from the kitchens and be there in a minute.”

“Oh, thank you so much! You’re a lifesaver!”

“Hmph, whatever…”

She put her phone back in her pocket and gave Tikki a little cuddle. “We’ll get you fed soon enough Tikki, don’t worry! And then back to helping Chat Noir!”

Tikki smiled at her. “Fang is being surprisingly helpful nowadays, isn’t he?”

“You think so?”

“He’s willingly getting us cookies! That’s nice of him.”

Heh… it was pretty nice of him, wasn’t it? Much nicer than he would have been several weeks ago.

“Maybe he wants to be friends,” Tikki continued.

“Is he not already my friend?”

She shrugged. “He’s being much friendlier than he used to be. I think that might be because of you!”

“Me? How?”

“Because you’re such a friendly person, Marinette!”

She couldn’t help but cuddle Tikki again. This little kwami was an expert at being friendly too!

“But next time, maybe listen to Chloé if she’s trying to give you advice, so you don’t accidentally cause her to get akumatized?”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Fine… I know this one was partly my fault…”

There were footsteps from round the corner. Tikki whizzed round to hide behind Marinette – but it was only Fang, delivering a plate full of cookies.

“Are these enough?” he asked.

“Thank you Fang, that’s plenty!” Tikki said, flying over and picking one up before beginning to munch on it.

Marinette checked the news stream on her phone – Chat Noir seemed to be having quite a bit of trouble with Antibug. “Fang, are you sure you can’t help? It’s technically not Chloé, it’s Antibug!”

He folded his arms. “Nope, it’s still Chloé, so I can’t help. But… um… good luck. If you need more cookies at any point then just let me know.”

That was probably the most she was going to get out of him – he really took this truce thing seriously, huh? Marinette could still hardly believe that Chloé was willing to outright ignore Fang, as opposed to going out of her way to antagonize him like she did with everyone else in the class. But it was true. Chloé did not talk to him at all. She didn’t even look at him.

“I don’t have time to wait for Tikki to finish eating,” she said. “I’ll… I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to help as Marinette, as long as I stay out of view of the news cameras…”

“Take care,” Fang warned.

For a moment Marinette was too surprised at his concern to reply. But then he looked away.

“Not that I care. I’m just saying, because… because if you reveal your identity then the whole city is basically doomed. Yeah.”

And there he was, back to his grumpy self. She gave him a pat on the shoulder. “See you later Fang! Thanks for the cookies!”

With that, she put Tikki on her shoulder and headed towards the hotel entrance. For now, Chat Noir needed her!


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want to bother writing out all the scenes that happen the same as in the actual show, which is probably why this fic seems to flit around so much between akuma attacks. It probably seems super weird without the context to certain season 1 episodes of ML, haha. It'll be moving into season 2 soon - Volpina is up next chapter!
> 
> Oh, and finally, a little bit of shippiness! Just a little bit though. I did say this was a slow burn, after all >:D

Endless akuma attacks, on and on and on. As soon as Marinette would defeat one, she’d barely get a few hours’ break before another would hit. Couldn’t Hawk Moth just chill for a while? It was getting too much!

Another one happened during class time, during a rainstorm. This time a villain who managed to somehow cause the Eiffel Tower itself to vanish in a puff of smoke. That poor tower! It could never catch a break, just like Marinette herself…

She managed to defeat the villain with Chat Noir, but she knew she would be late for class if she didn’t leave as soon as possible. But how could she leave? All the news reporters were here, a million cameras on her, all asking her questions – she just couldn’t escape.

The de-akumatized civilian sat on the steps of the Trocadero with a blanket over him to protect him from the rain. Oh! She recognized him!

“Jean Duparc?” she said, going over.

“Thank you for saving me Ladybug!” he said immediately.

“Oh, it’s not a problem!”

“How do you know my name?”

“Uhhh…” He went to the same school as her, but naturally he didn’t know that and she wasn’t about to tell him. “One of those news reporters told me. So anyway, what happened? What caused you to become akumatized?”

Jean looked back down at the ground, rain dripping off his hair. “I was doing my magic tricks at school, and some of the others were watching, but then… this one kid! He came up to me and started showing off that he could do much better! It made me feel really upset!”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving him an encouraging smile.

“It was that alien – you know, the one who’s Jagged Stone’s sidekick? That guy! He goes to my school and–”

“Wait, FANG was the one who got you akumatized?!”

“Yeah! You know him? Wait of course you do, he helps you guys sometimes…” Jean rested his head on his hand, looking glum. “How can my magic tricks compare to his superpowers? I just wish he hadn’t interrupted me just to show off…”

Marinette’s earrings beeped. “I have to leave now, take care of yourself and get back to school once you’ve dried off.”

“Thanks, I will.”

“And I’ll have to have a little chat with Fang…”

She turned and yoyoed away, thinking hard. Well really! Fang going and getting someone akumatized with his pettiness and quest for endless popularity! Just when she thought he was getting better about that!

Oh, she would definitely have to talk to him about this…

-

She did make it to class late. Luckily Ms Mendeleiev was too distracted with other things to yell at her too much, so Marinette escaped relatively unscathed. Poor Tikki was ill from the rain, sneezing away inside her bag, almost audible…

Two things needed to be done. First of all, corner Fang and tell him off. Second, get Tikki to a healer. Some kind of kwami vet or something.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of class, Marinette rushed off.

“Whoa whoa whoa, where are you headed?” Alya caught her by the jacket arm and pulled her back. “Why the hurry?”

“I uh…” Marinette tried to think of something, but her brain was running blank. “I need to talk to Fang about something!”

“Oh? About what?”

“About… fashion. Yeah. The fashion thing.”

Alya’s eyebrows were raised. “So you’ve made him those carrot macarons then?”

“Well no, but…”

“What’s going on then?” Alya adjusted her glasses and looked at Marinette very closely. “Don’t tell me… are you…?”

“N-no, no way, it’s nothing like that!” Marinette gabbled, her entire face heating up. “It’s Adrien who I like, remember? This is just – this is just something else, I–”

Alya was laughing. “I was going to ask if you’re _friends_ with him!”

“What? Oh…”

“Though now you’ve made me at least a bit suspicious. But I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. So, are you friends with him? Is that it?”

Marinette nodded, relieved. “Yes, that’s it! We’re friends but he doesn’t like people knowing, because he’s all weird like that. That’s what it is. Yeah.”

“Alright, fair enough. Go on then! Go talk to him.”

Phew! Marinette took a few steps – only to hear another little sneeze from her bag.

Poor Tikki… no, she had to go take Tikki to the healer first. That was more important than yelling at Fang. Fang could wait.

-

The next 10 minutes alone were filled with too many disasters to count. First of all Marinette had tripped down the steps outside the front of school _right into Adrien’s arms_ , which was embarrassing enough as it was without her blushing and stuttering at him like she always did. Then she realized that in the commotion she had somehow dropped Tikki, then saw Chloé cackling away in her limo at something as it drove away, and poor sweet Rose kneeling on the ground nearby in tears…

The worst part was that Chloé had Tikki in her hands.

Tikki! Marinette’s kwami! In the hands of CHLOÉ BOURGEOIS!

This was a complete disaster!

At least Chloé had seemed to mistake Tikki for some kind of little plushie toy, so her secret was still safe. But still! She had to get her back as quick as possible!

Not to mention, Rose sitting there completely disheartened, probably because of Chloé bullying her or something – there was a quite decent chance that she would get akumatized. After all, sunny Rose never usually got that upset about anything at all. She was the class’s little sunflower, always cheering up everyone else with her own happiness.

And now she was miserable! Weeping! She’d never been akumatized before – was it going to happen now?

Because if it did, and Marinette couldn’t get Tikki back soon, then this mild disaster would surely morph into a complete and utter catastrophe.

She couldn’t let that happen!

Disregarding how tired she was, Marinette sprinted all the way to the entrance to Chloé’s hotel. For some reason the front doors were shut and the doorman was actually guarding them properly, not letting anyone in – not even after Marinette tried to lie about being Chloé’s friend. How weird was that? Usually Marinette could just waltz inside with zero problems! What was with the heightened security today?

“Marinette? What are you doing here?”

She turned around. “Fang! YOU!”

Fang had been walking up to her, about to eat a macaron, but paused when he saw what a state she was in. “What? What did I do now?”

She grabbed his arm and pulled him round the corner, away from where the doorman could hear. “You got Jean Duparc akumatized!”

“Who’s Jean Duparc?” he scoffed.

“The magician!”

“Oh, that guy! He was so lame, hah, I can do way better than that.”

“This is exactly what I’m talking about!” Marinette snapped. “You interrupted his magic show just to gloat, and he got so upset that Hawk Moth akumatized him!”

Fang crossed his arms, glaring at her. “So what? It’s not like you haven’t got people akumatized before either, you know.”

“That’s not the point!”

“Why do you even care? Is he your friend or something?”

“No, I hardly even know him. But… just…” She dug her nails into her hair in frustration, trying to think of how to put this in a way that wouldn’t immediately get him all defensive. “You don’t have to only be nice to your friends, you know. It’s good that you’re nice to me these days. But you should be nice to everyone else too! Stop being so selfish!”

He rolled his eyes. “Ugh, fine! I’m sorry. I won’t ruin that stupid loser’s magic show again, alright?”

It was clear he was only saying that to get her to stop lecturing him, and it hadn’t got through to him at all. But she didn’t have time for this anyway. “Good. Anyway, I’ve got a way bigger issue on my hands right now. I need to get inside the hotel and the doorman’s not letting people in for some reason.”

“Oh yeah, some prince guy is visiting today, that’s why. Only normal hotel guests are allowed in.”

Marinette smacked a hand on her forehead. “Prince Ali! Of course! How could I forget? Rose kept going on about him in class…”

“Why do you need to get inside anyway?”

“Well Chloé stole Tikki, and I think Rose might be about to get akumatized, so I have to get her back!”

“Wait wait wait wait wait. Chloé _stole Tikki???”_

“Yes!”

He frowned at her. “How do you just lose Tikki like that? How did that even happen? I’d get it if she was kidnapped or something, but…”

“No time to explain, but I have to get her back as soon as possible and I need your help!”

“I can’t. I’m not allowed to–”

“Not allowed to interact with Chloé, yes! I know! But this is urgent! Please Fang?” She tried to smile at him, despite how much she was panicking on the inside.

“You haven’t even made me carrot macarons yet,” he pointed out.

“I will! I promise!”

“You keep saying that…”

“Forget the macarons!” she snapped. “Paris is in danger here, it’s more important than your truce! And plus, you literally got someone akumatized today, which made me late for class! You owe me.”

He sighed. “I’ll help you get inside the building then. But you can go get Tikki back on your own. If Rose does get akumatized I’ll hold her off until you can transform.”

“Thank you!” She peered round at the doorman, who was still standing there on guard. “What should I do? I already asked him and he didn’t let me in, I’ll need a disguise or something.”

_“Shadow helmet!”_

She watched as Fang used his shadow powers to make her a big black helmet, putting it over her head to cover her hair and most of her face, and then making a long cape to cover her clothes. She hadn’t realized he could do that – mostly he had been using his powers to make animals! But then again, anything could have shadows, really…

“There, now you don’t look like Marinette at all,” he said, grinning. “So what excuse should I give the doorman? That you’re a superhero teammate of mine from Malaysia? An alien?”

“A friend?” she suggested.

“I don’t know if he would believe that it’s possible for me to make friends…”

“But it is possible! You have friends in Malaysia, don’t you?”

“Yeah, and there’s you too…” He seemed to realize what he had just said, and backtracked immediately. “I mean – you’re like, an acquaintance. A person that is in the same class as me, that I know. Distantly. Yep.”

There he went again. Marinette couldn’t even tell at this point whether she found it annoying or endearing – in any case she was definitely getting very used to it.

“We’ll just tell him I’m helping you with your homework or something,” she decided.

“What? I don’t need help with my homework! I can do it by myself!”

“I know that, it’s just an excuse!”

“But I don’t want people thinking I can’t do it on my own–”

“Oh just hurry up, Tikki needs me! Let’s go!”

Not waiting for a reply, she went round the corner and over to the doorman. Fang quickly followed.

The doorman looked down at them, unimpressed. “Alien kid, who is this?”

“This is uh… someone at school who’s helping me with my homework,” Fang said quietly.

“Then why is she wearing that weird helmet?”

“I’m a pizza delivery person in my spare time!” Marinette said – then wanted to run up to the roof and launch herself off. Pizza delivery person! As if anyone would believe that!

But the doorman stepped aside. “Very well. You may enter.”

Oh?

That was weird, very weird. What kind of doorman was this?! Not that she was complaining – she hurried inside before he could change his mind.

“I can’t believe that really worked,” Fang muttered once they were well inside and out of earshot.

“Me neither!” said Marinette. “Thanks for your help.”

“Good luck with finding Tikki. Sorry I can’t help with that.”

“Well it’s probably easier with just one person anyway, don’t worry. I’ll see you later!”

She went off towards the lift as quick as she could. Time to get her brain into Ladybug mode, despite not being transformed. She could get Tikki back from Chloé, she knew she could! And once that was done, any potential akuma villain would be a piece of cake.

-

Having been in Paris for several weeks by now, Fang’s popularity had certainly increased. Plenty of people knew who he was when they saw him around. This was great! He loved this! It wasn’t quite the level that people stanned Ladybug and Chat Noir, or Adrien Agreste, but it was definitely much better than when he had first arrived!

Class was not so good, unfortunately. Marinette was still the only one who talked to him frequently. The others kind of just… avoided him a lot. To be fair, he did the same in return. They were all so annoying!

Well… he had found Marinette annoying at first too…

And she was still annoying! Of course she was. Everyone loved her to pieces, it made him sick to think of it.

But he was at least glad to have her around to talk to sometimes. It probably went both ways – Marinette couldn’t talk to anyone else about being Ladybug. Aside from Tikki, the only person she could confide in was Fang.

One sunny afternoon his phone rang with a call from Marinette. She probably needed help with Ladybug stuff, as she usually did whenever she called him. He picked up. “Hey Marinette.”

“I need your help!” she said immediately.

Yep, he’d called it. “Sure, what do you need?”

“Someone’s been akumatized, but I’m grounded and I can’t leave my house to go save the day!”

Ohoho! Goody-two-shoes Marinette Dupain-Cheng getting grounded! What a pleasant surprise to hear.

“Why are you grounded?” he asked, trying his best not to sound too pleased about it.

“I keep missing school due to Ladybug duties and my parents found out. They found out about the missing school thing, I mean, not the Ladybug thing.”

“So now you need me to wear your earrings for you and go save the day?”

“No, of course not! I need you to come over and distract my parents so I can sneak out without them noticing!”

Marinette’s parents? Sabine and Tom, the bakery owners? He’d barely spoken to them properly before, and even when he did, it was usually just him begging for carrot macarons!

“How should I distract them?” he asked.

“I don’t know, just keep them downstairs and away from my room so they don’t notice I’m gone. And please hurry! I have to go fight this akuma as soon as possible!”

“Alright, I’ll be there soon.”

“Thanks Fang! You’re the best!”

Heh… she didn’t mean that, did she? She was just being typical sweetie Marinette, as usual. But he did like to believe he was the best, and that some day she truly would see it for real.

-

The bakery was closed at the moment, so Fang went over to the side door to be let in. That had never happened before – this time it really felt like he was properly _visiting Marinette’s house_ , as opposed to the bakery that she happened to live in.

Was this going to be awkward? He had no idea what to say to her parents! Interacting with people’s parents was not something he did often. Yeah, he talked to Boboiboy’s grandfather a lot, but that was different, Tok Aba acted like he was practically everyone’s grandfather…

The door opened to reveal Tom Dupain standing there, so tall he filled the entire door frame. As soon as he saw Fang his face broke into a huge smile. “Fang! It’s so good to see you here! Come in, come in…”

Fang stepped inside and quickly pulled out his phone to send a message to Marinette that he was here, and she could leave now if she wanted. Alright – now all he had to do was stall her parents. Somehow.

“What brings you here?” Tom was asking now as he led Fang up the stairs and into the living room. “Are you here to see Marinette?”

“No!” Fang said. “Uh… no, not here for Marinette.”

“Oh? I’m sure she would be very happy to see you…”

Fang followed him through the door into the living room. It was so cosy in here, like a typical little Parisian place to stay. Very different from the hotel suite that Fang had been spending most of his time in. This place seemed a lot more… _home_.

Sabine Cheng was here too, rushing over to greet him. “Fang! What are you doing here? Marinette is upstairs in her room if you want to see her, you can head up there if you want–”

“I’m not here to see Marinette,” he said hastily.

“Are you here for carrot macarons? We’re planning on making some either today or tomorrow actually, so soon we’ll finally have some for you!”

His mouth was watering just at hearing that. “You’re making them _today?!”_

“We were thinking about it, yes!”

There, that was a perfect distraction! “Can you show me how you make them?”

Marinette’s parents looked at each other with overjoyed smiles, nodding.

“Of course we can!” Tom said. “You’re always free to get baking lessons from us anytime. Or if you ever feel like lending a helping hand, we’d be happy for that too!”

“Should I ask Marinette if she wants to join us?” Sabine asked, taking a step towards the trapdoor that evidently led up to Marinette’s room.

Fang shook his head. “No it’s okay! I was thinking… um…” He forced his brain to come up with something, anything at all. “…I was thinking I’d help you make them, and then… that would be a nice surprise for her. Yeah.”

Yikes, he had not meant for that to sound so cheesy. From the way Marinette’s parents had glanced at each other with little smirks, they’d clearly got the wrong idea. Oh well – too late now. He had to do whatever it took to keep them away from her room before she got back from being Ladybug.

“That would definitely be a nice surprise, I’m sure she’d love that,” Sabine said. “Alright then, we won’t tell her! Should we begin making the macarons now?”

“Yes please.”

“Great! Come here and wash your hands…”

Phew, this was going to be okay. Fang was not good at baking – better than Yaya obviously, but that wasn’t saying a lot. At least Marinette’s parents were nice.

In fact… they were _really_ nice. So nice, he could see how she’d turned into the friendly, happy, smiley sweetheart that she was. Being raised by people like Sabine and Tom would probably turn anyone into a ray of sunlight.

And being raised by freaking Captain Kaizo had turned Fang into the moody jerk that he knew he could be sometimes…

But it was so easy not to be that moody jerk around Marinette’s family. The way they spoke to him, it was like they were trying to make him as happy as possible and put him at ease! They hardly knew him at all, just as that weird alien classmate of their daughter’s who kept asking for niche food. And yet they were so willing to take him under their wing and teach him the same way they would do for anyone else!

It was so sweet!

-

The macarons took over an hour to make. Fang tried his best – he had to at least pretend he was okay at baking, right? Luckily Marinette’s parents were great teachers, and very patient too. What must it be like to have them as parents? No doubt Marinette was a baking expert as well.

He briefly checked his phone in between. Sure enough, there was a message from Marinette – she’d managed to save the day and return home to her room, so Fang’s services were no longer needed. Well too bad! He couldn’t just leave in the middle of this, could he? And anyway, he’d told her parents that it was a surprise for her, so he may as well follow through on that now…

The finished macarons were laid out on the tray, looking incredibly tempting. Fang was not sure if he was allowed to just pick one up and eat one, but Tom seemed to notice him looking.

“Go ahead and taste one!” he said, smiling at him and giving him a pat on the back. “You’ve earned it!”

“What, for free?” Fang asked.

“Of course! You don’t have to pay for these.”

Oh good! Fang picked one up and tried it.

This was…

_This was…_

Just as good as red carrot donuts??????

“How do you find it?” Sabine asked.

How was this possible? These were just macarons!!! How could they taste so good???

Fang was restraining himself from just picking up the tray and shovelling all of them into his mouth in one go. He got his hunger under control and nodded at her enthusiastically. “They’re really good! Thank you so much!”

“I’m glad they were worth the wait! And it always tastes better when you’ve made it yourself.”

“Well you guys did most of it, I only helped a little…”

“Aw, don’t sell yourself short! You were a great help!”

“It’s nice to see you so happy!” Tom said.

It was nice to feel so happy, too… a nice change…

Sabine put a few of the macarons onto a plate. “Why don’t you take these up to Marinette now?”

Fang took the plate, consumed by awkwardness all of a sudden. “So um… is that her room? Do I just go up there?”

“Yes!” She had a rather knowing smile on her face, to Fang’s alarm. “She’ll be so glad! She talks about you a lot, you know…”

“She does?!”

“All the time!” Tom added. “We’ve been wondering when she would invite you round.”

“You’re always free to come visit anytime. Stay for dinner sometimes too!”

While Fang was by no means an expert at French culture yet, he got the distinct impression that Marinette’s parents were _wingmanning_. Welp, that was awkward. Very, very awkward.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously and headed towards the stairs leading to Marinette’s room, carrying the plate of macarons. “I’ll uh… I’ll go up and see her then…”

Now they were both doing that knowing smile at him. He looked away and went up the stairs, deciding not to pay it any attention.

He knocked on the underside of the trapdoor.

“Come in!” called Marinette.

Fang opened the trapdoor and went up into her room with the macarons.

Whoa… it was very pink in here.

This room, it was so very _Marinette_. All the stylish furniture everywhere, the overabundance of light pink that everyone knew she loved, the pictures of Adrien Agreste plastered all over the walls. There was no mistaking this room for anyone else’s. It was completely Marinette at heart.

“Fang? Oh! I had no idea you were still here!”

He stopped looking at all the décor and finally spotted Marinette herself sitting on an office chair over by her desk, apparently doing some homework. She was wearing pyjamas and they’d practically blended into the rest of the room – he hadn’t even noticed her there at first.

She had also taken the hair ties off, leaving her hair falling naturally down to her shoulders. For some reason it tripled the awkwardness. He hadn’t expected to see her so… candid.

Entering the room properly and shutting the trapdoor behind him, he cleared his throat and held out the plate. “Your parents showed me how to make carrot macarons.”

Her face lit up. “You made carrot macarons with them? Really?”

“Yeah. And these ones are for you.” He went over and sat down beside her, putting the plate down on the table. “Try one. Tikki, too.”

She picked one up and took a bite, before handing the rest to Tikki to eat. “Hey, these are really good! Well done! Tikki, what do you think?”

Tikki beamed at Fang. “They’re wonderful!”

He couldn’t help feeling smug about getting a compliment from a magical immortal being with a sweet-tooth. “Yeah, they are, aren’t they?”

“Thank you for these,” Marinette said, quickly eating another one. “I’m starving, that battle was so stressful…”

“Really? What happened?”

She briefly explained how someone had been akumatized with a grudge against Gabriel Agreste, meaning that she had to go over to the Agreste mansion and protect Adrien from what was essentially a horde of zombies. And of course, being around Adrien did tend to stress her out, for _sappy hormonal Parisian teenager_ reasons…

He found himself getting a bit distracted. Usually Marinette’s hair was in pigtails. This just looked so different! Not that her hair hadn’t looked nice before, because it did, from an aesthetic point of view, yes. This was definitely an interesting change though…

“…It’s so nice I can tell you this stuff,” she said, polishing off the last macaron. “Thank you for the macarons. And thank you for helping distract my parents!”

“It was pretty fun,” he admitted. “And um… since I have carrot macarons now… you can go ahead with your whole fashion thing.”

“But I thought I was supposed to be the one making you macarons, not the other way round?”

“Don’t make me change my mind!”

She laughed. “Alright, fine! Not today, though. I’m exhausted.”

“Well, whenever. There’s no hurry.”

“Cool.”

There was a long silence. Fang wondered if he should tell Marinette that her parents said she “talked about him a lot”, or whether that would make it weird. Nah, it would probably make it weird, wouldn’t it? Everything was weird enough as it was. No point making it even weirder.

He stood up. “Since you’re exhausted, I guess I’ll leave now.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow then!”

She was leaning on her desk, smiling at him with that loose hair of hers falling straight down in the direction of gravity despite the way her head was tilted.

“Oh, um, also…” He knew he was going to regret this, but whatever. “Your hair looks nice like that.”

Her cheeks went a little pink. “Ah, really? Thanks!”

“From like… a fashion point of view…”

“Mmm.”

Yep, that was enough. He gave her a wave and then turned and walked out without saying anything else.

-

The next day she came to school with her hair down.

Fang was _livid_.

There Marinette was, getting crowded by her friends with generous compliments on how pretty she looked, admirers from other classes watching as she walked past–

This was so unfair!

“It was _my_ idea!” he snapped at her as soon as she walked into the locker room, not even bothering to say hello to her first.

“Oh, the hair thing?” she asked, twirling a strand around her finger a little self-consciously. “It’s um… I mean, I thought it might help people not recognize me, the same way you did…”

Right, so that was her excuse. To look sufficiently different from Ladybug.

Well she didn’t need that! Humans were stupid enough not to notice, that had already been established! And now here she was getting a bunch of attention for her new hairstyle, when the whole thing had been because of Fang in the first place!

“Will you at least tell everyone that it was my idea?” he said.

“Are you sure you want me to?”

“Of course! I…”

He stopped to think about it for a second. If people knew it was his idea, then they would know that he had complimented Marinette, and… oh. Oh no. No, he couldn’t have that!

Looking back at her hair again, it wasn’t entirely the same as it had been last night. Evidently Marinette did not want to get rid of her usual ribbons – she had instead used them to tie a few strands of hair round the back. It gave her a distinctly regal look, somehow.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Don’t tell them. But… but you’d better work hard on that fashion thing! So that when I come into school wearing new clothes, everyone will see me, and…”

“Yes Fang, don’t worry,” she said, giggling. “You’ll be popular too. I’ll make sure of it.”

“Good.”

He watched as she walked off to her own locker. Her hair really did look nice like that, he hadn’t been lying at all. And he could see why it was getting so much attention. Marinette was definitely gorgeous.

But come on! So was _he_ and he knew it!

The only reason she was more popular than him was because she was so nice to everyone, wasn’t it? But being nice all the time was so hard…


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, to be in 2015 Miraculous fandom again when the only thing we knew about Lila Rossi was the name "Volpina" and vaguely what she looked like...
> 
> Anyway, I've got a busy week of work ahead so I might finally slow down a bit with the writing, haha. I'm so looking forward to the season 2 stuff though!

Lila Rossi was a freaking _liar_.

Fang could tell immediately. All she ever did was lie! And not even believable lies. These were the most ridiculous, stupid, outlandish claims ever.

For starters, so many of her lies were about Jagged Stone. And as Jagged Stone’s official emo teen sidekick, Fang knew better than anyone whether any of these stories had any truth to them or not. And every single one of them did NOT.

Yet everyone believed everything she told them. And she was getting…

Oh, god. She was getting POPULAR.

Fang just couldn’t stand it. Why was everyone in this stupid class always so popular? And how dare Lila be the worst of all?!

She was the new student, he knew everyone would hate him if he tried to fight her or something. But oh, he so wanted to. He had to do something! How dare she just suddenly _show up_ and steal all his rising popularity away from him like this? This was worse than anything else that had happened so far!!!

Technically, he hadn’t met her yet. And he had only known of her existence for about 5 minutes. But what a terrible, terrible 5 minutes these had been. Walking through the school corridors, getting stuff out of his locker, all he could hear everyone around him talking about was bloody Lila!

He wanted to strangle her with Ladybug’s yoyo. Slam the locker door shut on her fingers. Feed her to crocodile Fang. Feed her to the panther at the zoo, even. Push her off the Eiffel Tower–

“Hey! Fang, right?”

He was snapped out of his morbid and violent thoughts to see that–

No – no no no no no, that was _her!_ It had to be her! It was exactly as everyone had described her! An exceedingly pretty young human with long auburn hair, tied into little princess-tails…

And she was walking right up to him.

The sudden rage that hit him upon seeing this shameless popularity thief right before his eyes was so strong that he had to physically restrain himself from just summoning his shadow tiger and… and doing the same thing he’d had way too much fun doing to those copy-paste bots back up on a distant planet somewhere one time…

“Oh, Fang! I’ve so been looking forward to meeting you!”

Her voice was so sickly sweet, like a donut that didn’t have nearly enough carrot in it. Now she had reached him and put his arm in a death-grip. Well… a light grip, but it may as well have been a death-grip, considering he already knew what an evil, horrible villain she was.

What should he do? Yeet her over the balcony railing? No, that would be a little too violent for a squishy non-powered human like her… Call her out for her blatant lies? Well technically she hadn’t lied directly to his face yet…

“I’ve heard so much about you!” she simpered. “Did you know people talk about you so much? You must be really popular! You’re definitely super popular _outside_ of Paris, did you know that? Back in Italy you’re actually considered way more popular than Ladybug and Chat Noir! I mean, a hot alien with such amazing superpowers is definitely more worthy of popularity than those two kids in costumes… oops, don’t tell anyone I said that, hehe…”

Oh…?

Oh???

“You… you think I’m popular?” he asked.

“Of course!” She beamed up at him, clinging onto his arm a little tighter. “And if you’re not, then you definitely should be!”

_Oh????????_

Any lingering rage subsided within two seconds.

Well… she was most definitely lying. It was completely obvious. And easy to see through. She was probably only hitting on him because, well, as she had said, he was a hot alien with amazing superpowers. And she was using his addiction to popularity to chat him up and wrap him right round her finger, just like she had done with everyone else.

But still…

Oh, he _needed this_. No one ever appreciated him like this! So what if Lila was a liar? He needed to hear all this. It was like red carrot cake to his ears. He needed it. Needed it. Needed it SO MUCH.

Well then, he may as well roll with it…

He put on a smile and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re right, I should be popular.”

“Exactly! Aliens are super interesting to me, you know? In fact… I have this secret, to do with aliens… I can tell you after school if you want…”

More lies? Well, at least they were probably interesting lies. “Sure.”

“Awesome! Should we meet up in the park then? After school? And I can tell you the secret?”

Now she was batting her eyelashes at him. Oh yes, he hadn’t realized how much he needed someone actually paying proper attention to him, taking an interest in him, _wanting to talk to him_ – even his friends back home leaned towards the “mocking him mercilessly” side of things, and even Marinette had only befriended him because he knew her Ladybug secret. Outright instant adoration was extremely rare.

How could he let a chance like this go?

“Alright then,” he said, not even bothering to hide how smug he was feeling on the inside. “I can’t wait.”

“Aww! Me neither!”

-

Several metres away stood Marinette, watching them, absolutely _seething_.

“…and here’s the interview where she told me she’s friends with Ladybug, and – hey Marinette? Are you even listening?”

Marinette turned to Alya and smacked the phone away. “Alya, do you see that?!”

“What?”

“Lila, right there! She’s… she’s…”

Alya rolled her eyes. “Talking to Fang, yes.”

“She’s not just talking to him! She’s… look!”

For a few seconds Alya did look. Then she sighed. “Marinette, why do you care?”

“Lila’s a liar,” Marinette explained. “She’s not best friends with Ladybug, she’s making it all up! She’s made everything up! None of it’s real! And now she’s probably lying to Fang as well! While… while being draped all over him like that, ugh…”

“What makes you think she’s lying?”

“Because…” Oh come on, how to explain without revealing her identity? “Because all the stuff she says is so ridiculous! How can ALL of it be true?”

“Are you sure you’re not just jealous?”

Marinette took a huge step back. “N-no, of course I’m not jealous, haha, why would you even think that? W-why would I be jealous? Look I just – you know how Jagged Stone commissioned me to help his sidekick have better clothes, well – well it’s that! I have to take care of Fang so that Jagged Stone doesn’t get upset! I mean I know he’s a brat but!! He’s my friend!! I can’t let Lila lie to him and manipulate him like this!! And – and–”

Alya, to Marinette’s immense annoyance, had started laughing. “I meant jealous as in ‘jealous of Lila’s cool lifestyle’ but girl, you’re really digging yourself a hole here. Talk to me once you’ve cooled down a bit, mmkay?”

Marinette watched Alya walk off. She dragged her fingers through her newly freed hair in rage – how could she possibly explain? Fang was the only person who knew that Marinette was Ladybug. Yes he was bratty, and annoying, and a complete disaster, but he was also clearly her friend now, and she was not going to let Lila just – just – !

She turned back to the two of them, trying not to throw up. Ugh. She had to do something. At least keep an eye on them. For Jagged Stone, of course. This was all for Jagged Stone. Obviously.

“Marinette!”

Tikki had popped out of her pocket and was staring at something on the other side of the room in utter shock.

“What is it Tikki?”

“That book! Look!”

Marinette followed her gaze to see – oh, it was Adrien. He was sitting on the other side of the courtyard, engrossed in a large tome of some sort. It looked pretty ancient.

“What about it?”

“I know that book!” Tikki said. “But… but how does Adrien have it… and why…? You have to go ask him!”

“What? Right now? I can’t!” She gently pushed Tikki back into her pocket. “Tell me later! I’m busy…”

She had to keep an eye on Fang. She couldn’t let anything distract her. Not even Adrien.

And anyway, Adrien wasn’t seeming all that distracting to her these days. It was actually… kind of a nice change. Maybe she’d be able to properly talk to him soon? She hoped so.

-

As soon as school was over, Marinette managed to wrangle her way out of people trying to rope her into their locker room conversations and ran to the park as quick as possible. Poor Kim, she’d really just brushed him off while he was trying to brag at her about something. But she could always talk to him again later – he was chill, he wouldn’t mind. Right now she had a more urgent matter to be dealing with.

Ah yes. Those two popularity fanatics were already sitting together on the park bench. Hiding behind a nearby tree, Marinette cursed herself for not escaping from the locker room quicker – how much of their conversation had she missed?

“Are you really spying on them?” Tikki asked, poking her head out of the bag.

“It’s not spying!” Marinette said. “I mean, okay, it’s spying! But it’s for Fang’s own good.”

“And not yours?”

“Shush, I can’t hear what they’re saying!”

Tikki sighed but did not argue any further. Marinette strained her ears to catch the conversation.

Lila seemed to have pulled out a little necklace that she was wearing. “So the truth is, one of my ancestors was an alien! It was my great-grandma, and she owned this necklace from her home planet, which she passed down through the family…”

Marinette almost gagged. Lila, part alien? There was no way that one was true! And there was no way that Fang would believe it, surely.

But Fang just grinned at her. “Oh, cool!”

Really? _Really?_

Lila tucked the necklace back in and leaned right into him in a way that made Marinette’s blood boil. “Oh, you’re friends with that superhero from Malaysia, right? My parents are diplomats, they actually used to work in Kuala Lumpur, and I actually met him when I was little! We were childhood friends!”

Another obvious, blatant lie. At least Fang seemed more sceptical this time. “Oh, I guess I should ask him about that…”

“Ahahaha no need!” Lila said quickly. “Don’t worry, I mean, he’s probably forgotten! It was a long time ago… hehe…”

“Well yeah, he is pretty forgetful to be fair…”

Marinette was snapped out of her growing indignation by a tugging at her jacket. She looked down to see that poor Tikki was frantic.

“Marinette, Adrien’s right there! We need to get that book!”

She turned to look. Sure enough, Adrien was walking past outside the park fence, completely oblivious to this utter buffoonery happening so close to him. “But why?”

“I’ll explain everything later. But trust me. We really need that book! It’s very, very important!”

“But… I’m…”

“And it’s Adrien! You wanted an excuse to talk to him, right? I thought you liked him!”

“Huh? I do, I do like Adrien!” Marinette insisted. “Of course I like Adrien! This isn’t… this isn’t a jealousy thing okay, I’m just mad that… that poor Fang is being lied to and manipulated!”

“Fang can handle himself – please just go get that book!”

Tikki’s adorable, pleading eyes were just too much. Marinette slammed her forehead against the tree. “Oh fine!”

She tore herself away from watching the park bench and went over to Adrien. As soon as he saw her his face lit up with genuine delight.

“Hey Marinette! What’s up?”

She ignored the _screaming and crying_ part of her brain and tried to remember why she was here. “I noticed that book you were reading earlier, it uh… it looked really interesting! From a historical point of view! Yeah! What was it?”

She wanted to hit herself on the head. Historical point of view, really???

Adrien just carried on smiling as cheerfully as he always did. “Oh I don’t know myself, I just found it in my father’s stuff.”

“You took it?”

He scratched his neck sheepishly. “Well uh… don’t tell him, okay?”

“Of course I won’t! I promise!”

“Thanks, Marinette. It’s a really interesting book, actually! I think it’s a history about the Miraculous, maybe Ladybug would find it interesting…”

Oh? That certainly captured Marinette’s interest. “What do you mean?”

“It’s got artwork of superheroes in it. Not just Ladybug and Chat Noir, but other ones too! Do you want me to show you?”

“Yes please!”

He glanced at his phone. “I have to go now, I shouldn’t get home too late or I might get into trouble… But I’ll show you tomorrow, okay? Hey, you could use some ideas for your fashion designs!” He gave her a wink.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea! But you go home now, I don’t want you getting into trouble!”

“Alright! See you tomorrow, Marinette!”

“Bye!”

He walked off. Huh, a book about the Miraculous? That certainly was very suspicious. Like, absurdly, ridiculously suspicious. Marinette was starting to see why Tikki wanted to see that book so badly. She did too now…

“Wow!” Tikki zoomed up to face her. “You actually had a whole conversation with Adrien Agreste!”

“Huh? …Oh yeah, I did! Nice!” She gave Tikki a little high five.

“Anyway, I’m going to go steal the book.”

“Wait, WHAT?”

“You just wait here, I’ll be back!”

“But – Tikki, you can’t just–”

It was no use. Tikki had already gone flying off towards Adrien.

Marinette remembered with a jolt that Lila was probably still trying to schmooze Fang back on that park bench – she didn’t have time for stealing Adrien’s property! She had to get back and see what was happening! Hopefully Tikki wouldn’t take long…

Sure enough, Tikki returned shortly, lugging the giant book in her tiny arms.

“How on earth did you manage to steal it without him noticing?!”

“We kwamis are very good at being sneaky!” Tikki said. “Now quick, put this in your bag before anyone sees it!”

Marinette hurriedly shoved it in her bag. “There, it’s safe. Now we have to go check what Lila’s up to!”

“Really? We could just go home…”

“No, we can’t! Not yet!”

Marinette stuffed Tikki back into her little pouch and then turned and ran back into the park.

Ah, there was the bench, and there were those two, and they were…

Oh – !

Oh no way, they were not. They were NOT!

Too livid to think rationally, Marinette ducked behind the tree again. “TIKKI, SPOTS ON!”

Tikki had no time to argue before being sucked into the earrings, leaving Marinette standing there as Ladybug instead. And as Ladybug, with perfect authority to do whatever she wanted, she stepped out from behind the tree, strode over, and shoved Lila and Fang apart.

Lila was on the defensive immediately. “Ladybug? What are you doing?!”

She put a foot up on the bench and crossed her arms. “STOP SNOGGING IN PUBLIC!”

“This is Paris, people do way worse in public,” Fang muttered.

She turned to face him. “Fang, you know she’s lying to you, right? Lila isn’t my friend, and she hasn’t saved me, or any of the stuff she keeps telling everyone! She’s a liar!”

Fang shrugged. “Yeah, I know, I don’t care.”

“You KNOW?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Obviously she’s lying…”

Lila gave him a shove, offended. “You think I’m a liar?!”

“What? I said I didn’t care though! I still like you!”

“Ugh, you were just – just using me? To get popular or something? Anyway, I’m NOT a liar! You two are just ganging up on me! And trying to humiliate me!” She burst into tears. “I should have just gone for Adrien instead… I bet he’s nice! Unlike you guys! Leave me alone!”

With that, she got to her feet and ran off crying.

“Look what you did!” Fang snapped, glaring at Marinette. “The _one_ time a girl likes me, and you just had to go and ruin it! What the fuck is your problem?!”

Marinette gestured at the spots on her outfit. “Don’t talk to me like this in public! My identity…”

“Oh yeah, sorry, you’re Ladybug right now. Okay then: what the fuck is your problem, _Your Majesty?”_

Jeez, she couldn’t take this. “I’ll talk to you later. Just… just gimme some space.”

Leaving him there fuming, she yoyoed away. As soon as she was in a closed area she detransformed.

“Tikki, can you believe the nerve of that guy?” she said immediately, handing Tikki a cookie. “He knew she was lying and he didn’t even care! How shallow even is he?”

Tikki mumbled something that sounded vaguely like “attention-starved”, though Marinette could not quite hear.

“I’m just trying to look out for him! I don’t want him getting his heart broken by a liar like Lila! And he’s so ungrateful about it!”

“The important thing is that we got the book from Adrien,” Tikki said. “Can I have a closer look at it?”

Marinette sighed. “Oh yes, that… Fine. We’ll go home and look at it together.”

She needed to calm down a bit. And honestly… now that she was thinking about it… maybe she should have spoken to Fang in private about it, rather than humiliating Lila right in front of him like that. And maybe she should have spoken to Lila privately about it too! Wow, she really hadn’t exactly been acting rationally, had she…?

-

Back in the hotel room, Fang decided to ignore several requests for assistance from Ladybug and Chat Noir. He had a brief look at what they were saying, along with what was on the Ladyblog – it seemed that Lila had been akumatized now and they wanted his help defeating her.

Well it hadn’t been his fault! It was Marinette’s fault! So why should he help her? She had only gone and totally wrecked his chances with someone who _actually liked him for once…_

Well… had Lila actually liked him?

He didn’t want to ponder it right now, he just wanted to be petty and sulky. And he had to distract himself from Ladybug’s messages before he started getting guilty about it.

Maybe calling his friends right now was a bad idea. But it wasn’t like any of his ideas were ever much good anyway, were they? He called them all for a five-way video chat, but only one picked up.

“Hey Fang, what’s up?”

“Gopal?” Fang frowned. “Where’s everyone else?”

“Oh, it’s the middle of the night. I’m just awake because I ate too much chocolate earlier and now I’m way too hyper to sleep.”

“Pfffffffff, how typical…”

“Anyway, how are you?”

Fang grinned – best to play this up as much as possible, at least for his own satisfaction. “So much more popular than any of you will ever be. I kissed a really cute girl today.”

“Ayyy, you finally kissed Marinette?”

“WHAT?!” He almost dropped the phone in shock. “No it – it wasn’t Marinette! What the – why do you even SAY THAT–”

“Because you keep talking about her,” Gopal said, shrugging and opening up another chocolate bar.

“No I do not! I don’t talk about Marinette! And… and anyway, why would I ever kiss her??? I mean… well yeah, obviously she’s pretty, and my friend, but so what? She’s just a dork who thinks she’s so _fashionable_ and _friendly_ … Seriously, I wouldn’t kiss her. Like, why would I? Why would I even think about doing that? I DON’T think about doing that!! Because I wouldn’t!! She’s just… she…”

“See?” Gopal said through another mouthful of chocolate.

“See what?”

“You keep talking about her.”

Fang glared at the floor, his cheeks heating up. “Oh shut up…”

“So if it wasn’t Marinette, then who was it?”

“This new kid called Lila. But then you know what Marinette went and did??? I don’t know if she’s just jealous or what, I didn’t think she was that petty but you never know… Usually she’s always nice but… anyway first of all she interrupted us, and then she started being all…”

“You’re talking about Marinette again,” Gopal warned.

Again??? Fang simply stopped speaking and just looked at the camera in a very frustrated silence.

Gopal had a rather sly look on his face. “Hey… since you’re in France, and you kissed someone, was it a… does that make it a… a F… Fr-… French k–”

“None of your business!” Fang snapped, blushing hard.

“Alright, alright…”

“Anyway, tell the others how cool I am when they wake up, okay?”

“Sure.”

“And make sure you tell them it wasn’t Marinette!”

“Fine.”

“Because seriously, it wasn’t. I don’t even care about her. She’s off fighting a villain right now and I’m not even helping, that’s how little I care. Because–”

“You should make yourself a shadow shovel,” Gopal suggested. “Because you are digging yourself into a very big hole right now.”

“WHATEVER, BYE GOPAL.” Fang quickly ended the call.

Oh, and now his brain allowed all the thoughts to come racing in…

Was it a good thing that Marinette had interrupted? He had to be honest now – things probably wouldn’t work out with Lila. Not if she was mad at him for simply knowing that she was a liar, even if he didn’t care. She just wanted him to be as charmed by her stories as everyone else.

Well… he kind of had been charmed…

It was so weird here. Back in space, no one ever really cared about any of this. Or spoke about it. Was it just his friend group that was weird? Or were Parisian teenagers all just sappy dorks, and he was turning into one of them?

He put a hand to his lips, still thinking about that moment when…

Really, he hadn’t expected her to kiss him. It had been a total shock. He wasn’t even sure if he wanted his first one ever to be like that, or whether he wished he could rewind time and get rid of it because it wasn’t like Lila really liked him anyway.

But then again, the reason she had done it was because he had decided to show off by remembering that she was from Italy, and that he was good at several languages, so he had whispered some very romantic Italian into her ear…

And she had been so genuinely impressed and surprised that she just kissed him. And then… well, that couldn’t have been the first time she’d done that to someone, because she was very good at it, to the point where despite having rather mixed feelings about the whole thing, he didn’t want to stop…

Hmm. Was he allowed to call her an “ex”? It probably didn’t count, but he certainly did like the idea of having an ex – it made him sound so much cooler.

There was a knock on the door. It was probably just Penny wanting to ask him what he was ordering for dinner or letting him know that she and Jagged had to go off and do a concert or whatever – that was usually the kind of interaction he had with them. He wasn’t much of a sidekick at all, to be honest, just an accessory to prove that Jagged Stone said ALIEN RIGHTS and that was about it.

“Come in,” he called.

The door opened. It was not Penny.

It was Marinette.

“Fang, I have so much to talk to you about!” she said immediately, closing the door behind her and coming over to sit down, not even noticing the enraged look he was trying to give her. “First of all, Lila really hates me now…”

“Join the club,” he said. “And that’s your fault, by the way.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have yelled at you guys like that. I’m sorry.”

The look she was giving him… she clearly really meant it. And he couldn’t stay mad at her for that.

He sighed. “Yeah, me too… I’m sorry for snapping back at you. Lila is not exactly good girlfriend material anyway.”

“Well she could be if she stopped lying all the time! But even after I de-akumatized her just now, I apologized to her and she’s still upset! I don’t think I got through to her at all.”

“What kind of akuma was she?”

“She called herself ‘Extraterrestrina’ and at first we thought she had powers just like yours. But then it turned out those were all just illusions. That was her power – making illusions. Bringing her lies to life.”

Yep, that sounded exactly like the kind of powers a liar like Lila would end up having.

“She also tried to kidnap Adrien,” Marinette continued. “I think she’s moved onto him now. This time I… I think I’ll let it be…”

“Huh? I thought you liked Adrien though.”

“I know, but that doesn’t mean I should go interfering! Anyway, he doesn’t seem interested, I think he can tell that she’s a liar. So it’s only a matter of time before she starts hating him too.”

It was weird to see her talking about Adrien without stuttering and giggling like an idiot for once. She must have been in a pretty serious mood if that was the case.

Tikki popped out of her bag. “Marinette! The book!”

“Oh yes!” Marinette pulled a dusty-looking old book out of her bag. “I was going to show you! Today at school Adrien had this book for some reason, and it’s something to do with the Miraculous! See, take a look at this…”

She laid it on the table and started flicking through the pages. There were illustrations of various Miraculous wielders in there, from all kinds of different historical periods, and some kind of code alongside each.

“I know I should return it, but look at this! It’s fascinating! How did Adrien get his hands on it in the first place?”

“How did _you_ get your hands on it?” Fang asked.

“Well um… we sort of borrowed it without permission…”

“You stole it.”

“Only briefly!” She was blushing. “This isn’t like the phone thief thing, I swear!”

“What phone thief thing?”

“Marinette has a reputation for stealing her classmates’ phones,” Tikki said, smiling cheerfully.

“He doesn’t need to know that!” Marinette said quickly. “Anyway, I’ll give this back to Adrien tomorrow now that Tikki’s had the chance to have a look at it…”

She made a move to close the book, but Tikki rushed up and stopped her.

“Marinette, wait! I’m sorry but we can’t give this book back to Adrien!”

“Huh? Why not?”

“I know someone who has been searching for this book for a long time. It contains important information and we have to take it to him so he can decode it!”

“But… this belongs to Adrien…”

“It’s really important!” Tikki insisted. “We need to take this book to the Guardian of the Miraculous.”

“Oh…” Marinette gently shut the book. “Who is this Guardian?”

“I think it’s better if I let him do the explaining himself. We can go tomorrow after school.” Tikki turned to Fang. “Do you want to come too?”

He blinked, taken aback. “Since when does this have anything to do with me?”

“You’re the only one in this city aside from the Guardian who knows Ladybug’s identity! It’s important that we make the Guardian aware of this fact.”

“Hmph, alright then.”

Marinette put the book back in her bag. “Poor Adrien. He said this book belongs to his father, I hope he doesn’t get in trouble for losing it…”

“You guys stole a book belonging to _Adrien’s dad???”_

“Tikki was the one who stole it, not me!”

Tikki chuckled. “Yes, you were too busy spying on Fang.”

“No I wasn’t!” Marinette’s face had gone the colour of a raspberry macaron. “Well… a little bit… I was just trying to take care of you, Fang! I didn’t want Lila messing with a friend of mine.”

So Marinette really did consider him a friend now. And clearly cared about him – not even just because he knew her identity, but for real.

Yeah… they were friends now. It was an undeniable fact.

She put a hand on his shoulder. “You deserve better than someone like that. Someone who’s just lying to you and using you…”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He leaned on the desk, glum. “She was just messing around. She didn’t really care.”

“Did you care?”

“A… a little bit…”

“Was that your first time, uh, playing Super Penguino?”

“…What?”

“Kissing!”

Oh! What kind of stupid slang was that, huh? How had he been supposed to figure THAT out?!

“It’s just our school’s slang, actually,” Marinette said, grinning rather awkwardly and still very pink in the face. “There’s this game on the app store for little kids called Super Penguino, and Mendeleiev’s class started using it as a weird metaphor for making out and then it spread…”

“I’m not calling it that, that’s stupid.” Fang crossed his arms. “And… and yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes that was the first time I ever… ahem.” He cleared his throat. Talking about this stuff was so awkward, it was no wonder he and his other friends never did. How these Parisians could be so open about it, he would never know! Would he ever get used to it?

“My first one was not the best either,” Marinette admitted. “It was with Chat Noir actually! Can you believe that?”

“Wait, seriously?!”

“Yep!” She gave a little laugh. “On Valentine’s Day. He got hit with one of Dark Cupid’s arrows and started trying to kill me. And I remembered that in all the fairy-tales, kissing breaks the spell. So I did, and it worked, though he didn’t remember it and I haven’t told him…”

Ladybug and Chat Noir, kissing? Hah, if the news ever got a hold of that, they would never let go.

But wait – Chat Noir was Adrien! Marinette had literally kissed her actual crush Adrien Agreste, and had no idea???

For goodness’ sake. The ridiculous love drama going on between those two was going to drive Fang insane, and it wasn’t even anything to do with him!

“Anyway, we’ll find you someone better for you than Lila!” she said, smiling at him. “No hard feelings about earlier?”

He shook his head. “Nah, it’s all good.”

“Great! I’ll see you tomorrow at school then. Afterwards we can go visit the Guardian together, whoever it is.”

She got up and picked up her bag.

“And um… don’t tell Adrien I stole his book…”

“Since when do I ever talk to Adrien?”

“Good point! I… um, I’m gonna leave now. Okay bye!”

Turning to go, she tripped on her own feet and smacked straight into the wall.

“I’m alright!”

Oh, typical clumsy Marinette. She was such a dork sometimes – maybe that was why no one ever suspected she was Ladybug, despite looking so similar. Her dorkiness wasn’t even annoying anymore. If anything, it was kind of adorable.

Once she was gone, Fang turned back to his desk and picked up a carrot macaron to eat. These always made him feel better.

Talking to Marinette had made him feel better too, actually…

He smiled to himself. It was nice finally having a real friend in Paris.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote all this stuff about how poor Marinette has so much on her plate and never gets a break, and then look what happened to me this week? Hahaha...
> 
> Anyway that's enough Penguino for now, get lost, back to slow burn time >:D

Once again, Fang was hit with that mood. The _I don’t have a Miraculous, therefore I don’t really belong here_ mood. All he could do was stand here in the corner of the room leaning against the wall, arms folded, listening to this Master Fu guy talking to Marinette and Tikki and his own little kwami Wayzz about various Miraculous things.

What was the point of him even being here if he was so irrelevant? He had missed a chance to video call his friends for this! His friends back in Malaysia, that was – after all, Marinette was his friend now too.

Yeah… that was why he was here. Because he was her friend. And he knew for a fact that she would have preferred to bring Alya here with her instead, but there was just that little problem of Alya not knowing that she was Ladybug. So the only option was Fang. She didn’t have any other choice.

At least Master Fu seemed nice enough. He had thanked Fang for keeping Marinette’s secret so far and for helping out during akuma attacks.

Hah! What helping? Recently Fang had barely done anything at all. He hadn’t even bothered to fight Extraterrestrina!

Too engrossed in his own thoughts and pitying himself very much, he didn’t pay enough attention to the conversation to have any idea of what was going on. Master Fu was Guardian of the Miraculous, he had a box with a bunch of them in it, he had his own turtle kwami, yeah yeah whatever. He didn’t need to listen. It wasn’t like it had anything to do with him. Only Marinette…

“…thanks, I’ll take care. See you later, Master! Come on Fang, let’s go.”

Marinette was waving Fu goodbye. Time to leave? Oh, thank god, he was so bored here. He followed her out of the door.

Once out on the street, he started complaining.

“Why did that old guy choose to give superpowers to literal kids??? I mean I know me and my friends have powers too, but that’s different, Ochobot’s a complete idiot sometimes and that’s why he did it. But this Fu guy should know better! He doesn’t seem like a very responsible Guardian if he’s going around giving powers to random teenagers who happen to be mildly nice to him…”

Marinette did not appear to be listening. She was frowning, staring at the ground ahead of her as she walked, deep in contemplation.

Tikki popped her head out of the purse. “Marinette, why did you lie to Master Fu?”

Fang immediately stopped his complaining. “Wait, what? You lied to him? About what?”

“I didn’t tell him who I got the book from,” Marinette admitted. “Were you not listening or something?”

“Of course I wasn’t listening. I don’t care about any of the stuff you guys were talking about.”

“He said that the book was lost back with the Butterfly Miraculous. That means whoever is the owner of this book, they’re likely to be Hawk Moth.”

“Oh, right. So–”

“So Adrien might be Hawk Moth!” Marinette was starting to freak out a little bit. “Does this mean I’ve been fighting Adrien this whole time?!”

“The book belongs to Adrien’s father!” Tikki reminded her, zooming up and giving her a pat on the cheek to calm her down. “I’m sure Adrien isn’t Hawk Moth.”

“Oh yes, phew… Wait! So Gabriel Agreste might be Hawk Moth?!” She turned to Fang. “You’re the one who’s good at figuring out people’s identities, what do you think? Is he Hawk Moth?”

Fang shrugged. “No idea, I’ve never met him.”

“That’s because he doesn’t leave his house. He’s a recluse, broken-hearted since his wife disappeared… oh no, oh no, this all fits… Adrien’s father might really be Hawk Moth…”

Welp, that would be pretty awkward for Adrien.

“I have to tell Chat Noir about this later!”

Oh… that would be _extra_ awkward. If Gabriel Agreste really was Hawk Moth, that meant that he unknowingly tried to kill his own son on a daily basis.

Jeez, poor Adrien. Sure, he was annoyingly popular, but he didn’t deserve all that mess. Fang unfortunately knew first-hand that fighting a relative was very, very stressful.

But it wasn’t certain that Gabriel was Hawk Moth. Was there any way to find out for sure? And if this really was going to turn into Agreste family drama, then did Fang even want to bother getting involved?

“I need to go ask Adrien for more details about the book,” Marinette said. “Maybe this is all some kind of misunderstanding! He said he’d found it in his father’s things, but… I… I’m sure there’s an explanation.” She checked the time on her phone. “He’ll still be at school – let’s go see him!”

“What, both of us?”

“Yeah! You can’t leave me alone with Adrien, or I’ll…”

Or she would start blushing and be completely unable to talk, yes, he knew, everyone knew. Except for Adrien himself somehow.

“You managed to talk to him yesterday just fine,” Tikki pointed out.

“Huh, that’s true…”

“You don’t have to keep dragging me around everywhere,” Fang said. “I know I’m the only one who knows your secret, so you don’t have a choice, but–”

“It’s not that!” Marinette smiled at him. “I’m choosing to! Because we’re friends now! I know you miss your old friends a lot, and I can’t fill that void. But I want you to have fun here in Paris! So you get to be dragged along on all my adventures with me.”

Alright, that was pretty nice. Not knowing what to say, he just smiled back.

“And I like hanging out with you,” she continued. “I think you’re funny. Anyway, are you coming with me to see Adrien?”

For a few seconds he was still stuck on the fact that Marinette _thought he was funny_ to hear the last part of that. What did she mean? Did she mean like… in a mocking way? Funny to mock? Or just funny in general?

“Uh…” He glanced at his watch. “I was supposed to call my friends… my other friends I mean…”

“Oh okay! You do that then. I’ll talk to you later and let you know if I’ve found out anything new. See you!”

She headed off towards school. Fang turned and headed for the hotel – he wasn’t even sure where he had been planning on going anyway. He had kind of just been following Marinette without thinking.

His phone buzzed. Was that his friends trying to call him? He checked it.

Nope, just messages from the class group chat that he had been forcibly added to against his will. Why were they all talking so much today? Had something happened?

While he had Chloé blocked and couldn’t see anything she had written, the replies from the others told him all he needed to know.

Adrien Agreste had been grounded, and was no longer allowed back to school, because he had lost his father’s “book of inspiration”.

Oh, that poor boy… Things just got worse and worse for him, didn’t they? Maybe it was bad enough to balance out his ridiculous popularity…

-

Back in his hotel room, Fang had only just finished chatting with his friends when he received a message from Penny asking him to go to the Trocadero as quick as possible. Right, probably sidekick duties. Fang went down in the lift, stepped outside, and–

Hey, where had that ugly tower gone?

It just… wasn’t there anymore.

Oh, good! The Eiffel Tower was gone!

Well, it wasn’t the first time this had happened, and it wouldn’t be the last. Akuma villains had a habit of attacking that tower and Fang did not mind one bit. Looking at the Paris skyline and not having to see it was always a mood-lifter for him.

He got to the Trocadero without bumping into whoever this villain was, only to see that the place had been deserted apart from Penny, who was standing there waiting for him.

“Fang, I’m so glad you’re safe!” She ticked something off on her clipboard. “There’s an akuma attack going on right now. I called you here for backup, but the villain has already left, unfortunately.”

Fang looked around – everyone else seemed to have left, too. “What happened?”

“Jagged was performing a concert here. The villain arrived, trapped him inside a magic book, and threatened to get others too. Most of the audience fled. The villain then left, presumably to go attack more people.”

“Do you know who it was?”

She shook her head. “No, sorry. He also seems to have captured the Eiffel Tower and the pyramid of the Louvre.”

That weird pyramid was gone too? This was just getting better and better!

Penny was fiddling nervously with her pen, clicking it several times per second. “I’m glad you’re alright. I do worry for you sometimes, you know, considering that you go around fighting akuma villains… but I know you can hold your own. It’s just… you’re so young! You shouldn’t have to be doing this.”

He shrugged. “I’ve been fighting bad guys since I was a little kid, it’s no big deal.”

Her eyes widened in shock for a second, though she quickly hid it under her usual calm exterior. “No wonder you’re very good at it. But I still feel like I haven’t always been supervising you enough. You’re… uh, how old again? I told the school you were 14 but Jagged keeps insisting you’re 10.”

“I am 14. Jagged is on crack.”

She giggled, which was weird coming from her, of all people. “He’s just a bit silly, haha… um – anyway! Fang, I don’t feel as if I’ve been doing enough to support your move to Paris, so I’ll do better from now on.”

Was she trying to be motherly or something? It seemed so fake coming from someone as professional and business-like as her – well, as professional and business-like as a person with bright pink hair could be, anyway. It was nice to see that she was trying, though.

“It’s fine,” he said. “You were busy taking care of Jagged. And anyway, I’ve settled in fine now.”

“Oh good! You’ve made friends then?”

“Yeah. Marinette.”

“Oh! That’s excellent!” She looked down at her clipboard again. “Has Marinette been working on a new outfit for you?”

Fang did not quite know how to explain. The part about Marinette being Ladybug and therefore too busy to put much effort into it was obviously not going to cut it. And telling Penny that he had been too petty to let her help him until he got carrot macarons was also not on the table – he didn’t want her to think of him as a selfish brat, even if he kind of had been.

“It’s not compulsory,” she said quickly. “If you’d rather she didn’t then I can always cancel the–”

“Huh? No, I do want her to!”

He was surprised at himself for saying so. True, he didn’t exactly want to be known as a fashion tragedy here in the fashion capital of the world. But he also just wanted excuses to hang out with Marinette…

Penny made a note of something. “Great. It’s alright if she takes her time, I understand you all have a lot of schoolwork to be getting on with too. And being a teenager is not easy.”

Being a teenager who was also a superhero was the least easy of all, especially not being allowed to tell anyone. How did Marinette even cope? Keeping it a secret all the time? How did she resist the urge to show off about it to everyone she knew?

There were footsteps from behind him. He turned around to see someone running up to him – someone who looked pretty familiar.

“FANG! FANG THE ALIEN! IS THAT YOU?”

Oh yes, he remembered that voice. This was the very first civilian he had ever saved in this city, back during that animal attack. It seemed so long ago now!

The civilian was dressed differently this time, though. He was wearing purple, and he had glasses on now (though they looked a lot more like the safety goggles from the school science lab), and a long sleeveless coat…

Hang on a second.

Was he dressed up just like Fang???

“I’m so glad I get to see you again!!!” The civilian came to a halt right in front of him and immediately began bouncing up and down on his toes, clearly too hyper for his own good. “Do you remember me?”

“Uh…” Fang had no clue what his name was. “You’re that guy I saved in the animal attack…”

“Oh my god you remember me!!! You remember who I am!!! This is the best day of my life!!!”

This was rapidly becoming the best day of Fang’s life too – this guy seemed like such a huge fan of his! Sure, he’d already had fans, but usually they were a lot more casual about it. This was on another level! This was more along the lines of how much people loved Ladybug and Chat Noir!

“Can I get a picture?” the guy asked. Without waiting for a reply, he snapped a quick selfie and then started typing a caption. “Just… met… Fang… at… Trocadero… hashtag #Blessed… send tweet!”

“You can have my autograph too!” Fang said, loving this more and more. “And you have my permission to start a fanclub for me. Call it the Fangclub. And you should definitely go tell everyone how awesome I am.”

The fan’s eyes were practically sparkling. “Oh, I will, I will! I’ll do all those things! Ahhh I knew this was going to be a good day, I woke up and said to myself ‘Wayhem, you’re going to get a selfie with Fang today’, and now look! It really is my lucky day!”

“Only one problem.” Fang gestured at his clothes. “I’m getting a makeover at some point, so you’ll need to get new clothes if you want to keep copying my style.”

“I don’t mind! I’ll buy as many new clothes as I have to.”

“Great! You’re now officially my greatest fan.”

“I’M FANG’S GREATEST FAN! THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME!” He typed something on his phone. “Just updating my status. If you ever want to find my profile, just find me on the Ladyblog forums! I’m the one always posting in all the Fang appreciation threads!”

“Oh, you’re that guy! Thanks for those threads, they’re awesome.” Fang was always constantly reading through those – they gave him the energy he needed to get out of bed each morning.

“You are very welcome!” said Wayhem. “It was so nice to meet you again! I hope I meet you another time soon! Stay in touch! I’ll let you know how the fanclub goes! I have to go now because apparently my house got destroyed in the akuma attack and my family are freaking out, but I don’t care! I’m freaking out too and in a good way! Thank you for being awesome Fang, I’ll see you again soon!!!!”

He waved so fast he almost knocked off his glasses, then turned and ran off as quickly as he had arrived.

Penny immediately put a hand on Fang’s shoulder. “You should take care.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Loony fans. It can be nice at first, but… trust me. They can become a hassle very quick.”

Oh yeah, Jagged had loony fans too, like the one who Fang had threatened way back on his third day in Paris. Penny was used to dealing with plenty of those.

“You think Wayhem is one of those creepy stalker fans then?” he asked.

“I don’t know. He seemed to just be an excited young fan for now. But keep an eye on it. I know you like to be in the limelight, but…”

Off in the distance, the Eiffel Tower suddenly reappeared. Ladybug had probably just defeated the villain and done her healing thing.

Jagged reappeared a few steps away, along with the piano that he must have been playing when he got captured. Several of his fans reappeared in their spots too.

“Jagged!” Penny called, a huge smile on her face. “You’re alright!”

“Penny? What happened?”

She ran over to go talk to him. Fang’s heart was sinking – that stupid tower was back, ugh. He hated looking at it.

His phone was ringing – oh, it was Marinette! He picked up immediately.

“Hi Marinette, you’ll never believe what just happened, I have a fan and–”

“Gabriel Agreste isn’t Hawk Moth!” she said, interrupting him. “It’s not him! The villain just now, the Collector, that was Mr Agreste akumatized because Adrien lost his book! So he can’t be Hawk Moth!”

“Huh? Oh right, cool. Anyway, as I was saying…”

“Wait wait wait, I have more news! I’ll get Fu to take a picture of every page in the book and keep a digital copy for him to decode, that way I can return the book to Mr Agreste and ask if Adrien will be allowed back to school. Okay, now continue.”

Yep, he was glad to continue. Akuma nonsense happened every day, but sudden spikes in popularity? That was a lot less frequent! This was more important! He happily told Marinette all about Wayhem’s enthusiastic appreciation of him. And Marinette didn’t even seem annoyed at him for so blatantly indulging in his own popularity – though maybe she was just so relieved that Adrien’s father wasn’t Hawk Moth after all.

Well, that was good in multiple ways. At least it meant that Chat Noir wasn’t fighting his own father all the time. Imagine the drama if that had really been the case! It would be like something out of a TV show!

But no… for now, they were back to square one with no clues about Hawk Moth’s identity.

“I’ll keep my eyes out in case I find out who Hawk Moth really is,” Fang said at the end of his long popularity spiel, realizing he should probably show some actual interest in what Marinette had been talking about too.

“Thanks. If anyone can find out, it’s you.”

“Well it would be helpful if Hawk Moth stopped being a coward and actually showed up to a battle himself for once…”

“Haha, true! Maybe he’s too scared because he knows he can’t beat us!”

“Well he definitely can’t beat me, that’s for sure…”

There was the sound of someone clearing their throat. Fang turned to see Penny there, tapping her watch.

“What?”

“We should probably be heading back to the hotel,” she said.

“Um… five more minutes.”

“You’ve been on the phone for 25 minutes already! The limo is waiting!”

Wait, what?! 25 minutes? Surely not!

He checked the screen – sure enough, it really had been that long. Wow, time flew so fast when talking to Marinette somehow! Much the same as it did when he was video calling his other friends back in Malaysia…

“I have to go,” he said to Marinette. “See you at school.”

“Aww, see you tomorrow!”

With that, he turned to Penny. “Alright fine, let’s go.”

“I wonder if that explains it,” Penny mused.

“Explains what? What are you talking about?”

She was grinning. “Marinette hasn’t yet been working on your new outfit, because every time you talk to her, you two get distracted and end up just chatting.”

Well… that was kind of true too…

He followed Penny back to the limo, vaguely wondering if he’d end up with any other friends here too, or whether it would just be Marinette.

-

Marinette did _not_ trust Chloé Bourgeois. Not one bit.

So when Chloé had sent out party invitations to everyone at school, inviting them over to the hotel for the evening, she had naturally been suspicious. She didn’t even want to attend! Not if Chloé was the party host. Ugh. Even the promise of Adrien attending hadn’t managed to sway her.

But Marinette’s invitation had been kind enough to mention that while Chloé couldn’t invite Fang herself due to the truce, Marinette could feel free to bring him along as a plus-one. And it might be nice to get him involved in some kind of social activity for once – she was well aware that he was still quite lonely here, with most people pretty wary of him.

Now she was regretting having dragged him along. He was just standing there with his arms crossed looking miserable. To be fair, he did that almost all the time anyway, but still!

She was regretting even attending herself, considering how much just having to _look at_ Chloé was infuriating her. Chloé was clearly only doing this to suck up to Adrien! And plus, she wasn’t even good at being “nice”! This was, at most, basic decency. Giving Mylène a few ice cubes in her drink, ignoring people she disliked instead of actively antagonizing them, now slow-dancing with poor Kim to Marinette’s favourite song…

“Are you going to ask Adrien to dance?” Alya said, giving her a nudge.

Marinette watched Adrien, several metres in front of her looking the other way and absent-mindedly munching on a cookie. “I don’t know…”

“Oh come on! This is the perfect set-up. Your favourite ballad, a hotel party, he’s in a good mood – why not go for it?”

“I…” She didn’t know quite how to explain the sudden awkwardness in her soul. Dancing with Adrien? Usually she would have jumped at the opportunity! At least, she would have done so in her own mind, even if that translated out loud to stuttering and tripping over.

But right now? Right now it was just giving her anxiety.

Oh, it was probably Chloé’s fault! That stuck-up brat had totally soured Marinette’s mood. Now Marinette didn’t even want to dance, she just wanted to stand here and be as salty and silent as Fang.

Fang himself had decided that now was the time to speak up, for some reason. “Are you too nervous? We’ll ask him for you.”

Alya turned to face him with glee. “Oh, I see we have another matchmaker on board!”

“Well obviously. Seeing Marinette miss all these blatant opportunities is painful.”

“Right? Come on Marinette, you can do it!”

Marinette glanced back at Adrien, trying to muster up some energy. Come on, anything at all!

Adrien spotted her and ran over immediately, a huge smile on his face. “Hey Marinette! Want to dance?”

She didn’t have time to reply before he had grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the dancefloor with him. This was probably one of the only opportunities he had ever had for this – the only other time she could think of was back at his own birthday party, which was only because an akuma villain had organized it for him. No wonder he seemed so excited to actually dance with someone right now.

If only Marinette could be that excited too! Here she was, hands on Adrien’s shoulders, barely a few inches away from his face! And he was smiling down at her so sweetly, like he was the happiest guy in the world…

Her throat tightened. Why was this just so _awkward?_

She was supposed to be enjoying this! What was wrong with her? She’d wanted to do this with Adrien for ages!

“Are you okay?” Adrien asked.

She hurriedly put a smile on her face. “Yes! Yes I’m fine!”

It wasn’t a complete lie. Adrien was wonderful, amazing, brilliant – she knew that. Maybe… maybe she was just nervous? Maybe those nerves were overshadowing everything.

If only she could just put those nerves out of her mind for now. Just push her crush on Adrien aside and actually enjoy this in the same way that he was doing – simply happy to just _be_ with his friend, his classmate, not needing to worry about anything else right now.

Yes… That might work. She could think about how dreamy and handsome Adrien was later. For now, just settle into this. Enjoy it. Just like Adrien was doing.

-

A few metres away, Fang and Alya stood watching. Despite Alya being Marinette’s best friend, he hadn’t spoken to her much at all. He only liked it when she was asking him questions for the Ladyblog, making him even more popular. The rest of the time? He got the feeling she didn’t much like him at all.

“Marinette doesn’t look that impressed with Adrien’s dancing skills,” Alya said, a slight frown on her face.

Fang shrugged, grabbing a drink off the nearby table. “Maybe she’s still in a bad mood.”

“Hmm, maybe.” Alya gave him a very sly aside-glance. “I’ve also been wondering if… hmm…”

“Wondering if what?”

She had lowered her voice. “If Marinette’s secretly got her eyes on a new boy.”

“Pfffff, like who?” He took a sip of his drink.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the attractive and mildly popular guy she’s constantly hanging out with all the time these days for no particular reason?”

The… the what?!

Fang choked on his drink and spent the next several seconds coughing and spluttering, red in the face.

“That’s ridiculous,” he managed to say eventually. To his annoyance, Alya was laughing.

“Well come on! Usually she’ll take any chance she can get to dance with Adrien! But ever since you’ve been here… I don’t know, man, I’m wondering if she would rather dance with you.”

“I’m not dancing with anyone,” Fang snapped. “And in case you haven’t noticed, Marinette is perfectly capable of actually speaking to me in full sentences.”

“She can talk to Adrien in full sentences too. But anyway, she doesn’t look too happy right now – why don’t you go dance with her?”

“Why don’t you shut up and go dance with Nino?”

Alya laughed again. “You’re hilarious! Okay fine, I can kinda see why Marinette’s your friend. You’re not half bad, Fang. And you’ve been helping out the heroes sometimes, and Marinette says you’re really nice to her now…”

She held out her hand for a handshake.

“You’ve already got one friend in Paris. Do you want another?”

He looked down at her hand, taken aback. “You want to be my friend?”

“Yes! I trust Marinette. If she thinks you’re alright, you’re probably alright.”

For a few seconds Fang hesitated. Having another friend in Paris would be nice, wouldn’t it? And Alya ran the Ladyblog. She practically had his popularity in her hands. She was best friends with Marinette, too. There didn’t seem to be a downside to this. Plus, Alya was… kind of cool, he had to admit.

He nodded and shook her hand. “Fine then. Friends.”

“Great!” Alya suddenly gripped his hand bone-crushingly tight and leaned in close. “Listen to me carefully: if you ever do anything to break Marinette’s heart, _I will send my boxing champion big sister to break your face_. Got it?”

Fang wrenched his hand away. “I’m not going to break her heart! Sheesh!”

“Good! Then Nora won’t need to break you.”

He hadn’t yet met Nora, but he had heard the tales – a fantastically fun, but overly powerful boxer who would surely take the world by storm. What would happen if Nora went against Kaizo? One big sibling versus another.

“I think I will go dance with Nino now,” Alya said, back to normal after her sudden threat. “See you later Fang! If you change your mind about dancing later, I’m sure Marinette would be happy to–”

“Oh just get lost!”

Alya laughed and went off towards the DJ area to find Nino.

Fang just leaned back against the wall and took another sip of his drink. He didn’t want to dance with anyone! These Parisians were so sappy, it was ridiculous. The second a love song came on, they just had to go cling onto the nearest person like some kind of limpet! There was no way he was doing that. How embarrassing for them.

Some kind of commotion had started on the dancefloor – Chloé was yelling at someone. Yep, of course her whole “being nice” façade had fallen apart, there was no way she could go an entire evening without being mean to somebody. Fang had known that since the start. This wasn’t a surprise.

Since he wasn’t allowed to get involved due to the truce, he went off and sat in the corner of the room away from everyone else. There! Now he could watch the entire thing at his leisure.

Marinette was still dancing with Adrien…

It was true that she didn’t look quite as happy as he’d thought she would. But – but of course she still liked Adrien! What had Alya even been saying, honestly?! Yes, it was true that if Fang absolutely _had_ to dance with anyone here, he would pick Marinette, and she wouldn’t say no to that, but – that was – that was different!

Was this really what it looked like from the outside? Their friendship had started thanks to him knowing that she was Ladybug, and of course no one knew about that. To them, it must have seemed a bit out of nowhere.

And Alya did know Marinette best…

Fang quickly downed the remainder of his orange juice. Alya was just being a ridiculous overzealous wing-girl, that was what it was! If things didn’t work out 100% perfectly with Adrien, then naturally Alya would immediately try someone else. Because she always did whatever she could to salvage Marinette’s rather dreadful love life.

Yes. That was it. It was just Alya’s own brand of ridiculousness. Nothing else.

The commotion had now turned into mass panic as some kind of demonic little teddy bear ran across the floor, looking for a victim to possess. Ah right, that must be the akuma villain. Fang vaguely wondered who it was, but as it was none of his business, he instead just got out his phone and started writing up another email to his friends. Ladybug and Chat Noir could deal with this one on their own. They were already both in the building, after all.

Oh… and they had been literally dancing with each other just now…

This crazy identity nonsense! It was so frustrating! Why couldn’t they just _know???_ It was worthy of a telenovela plot, it really was! If only they knew each other’s identities, they’d get together immediately, and then Alya wouldn’t have to matchmake all the time, and Fang wouldn’t have to worry about a thing…


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think my brother hates this fic, haha. He hasn't read it or anything, it's just that I literally never shut up about it and he's getting sick to death of hearing me yeet ideas at him all the time.
> 
> At long last, things are finally moving along a tiny bit...

Marinette was WAY too popular for her own good. It was her birthday, and all week the rest of the class had been planning some kind of massive surprise party for her! The class aside from Chloé and Sabrina, that was.

Seriously though! Did they go to this much effort for _everyone?_ Fang had checked with Alya, and apparently no – this was just because it was Marinette, and Marinette was Special, and amazing, and oh so wonderful and blessed, and everyone adored and appreciated her so much…

It made him absolutely livid. For the entire week leading up to the surprise party, Fang had outright refused to help anyone with it. Let them struggle on their own! It would serve them right!

Unfortunately his attitude was also having the slight side effect of making him somewhat disliked by quite a few people…

Well what did it matter? Marinette liked him, Alya tolerated him, and he already had his friends back in Malaysia. He didn’t need any of these stupid classmates. They were really bad at hiding the “surprise” aspect of the party anyway, there was no way Marinette hadn’t realized what they were up to despite how oblivious humans could be.

“I’m surprised you actually showed up,” Alya said to him the second he walked into the park. Everyone in here was still busy setting up since Marinette wouldn’t be arriving for a while yet.

“Of course I showed up!” he said. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“You didn’t seem very keen on this surprise party.”

“But Marinette’s my friend, I have to be here! And anyway, when else am I going to give her a birthday present?”

“What did you get her? More carrot macarons or something?”

“No, of course not!”

Alya just raised her eyebrows at him.

“Well… well yeah, I did help her parents make more carrot macarons the other day,” he admitted. “But I have an actual present for her, and it’s going to be way better than anyone else’s present. You’ll see.”

“What is it?”

“Something awesome. I’ve been working on it for ages.”

He didn’t want to tell anyone yet. It certainly was something amazing though, Marinette was going to love it! And the rest of the class would realize that they had been stanning the wrong person, and then they’d throw an appreciation party for Fang instead, and he would be the most popular kid at school, and then he’d get more popular than Ladybug too, and…

“Hey Fang, can you come here a second?”

He was thrown out of his self-indulgent thoughts to see Nino waving him over from the DJ table. That was weird, since when did Nino ever talk to him?

“What do you want?” he asked, going over.

Nino was cheerful, as always. “Music recs! I’ve made a playlist for the party and I got recommendations from everyone else in the class. Didn’t quite manage to catch you this week though, so I’ll ask you now! You got any alien songs or anything you think Marinette would like?”

Well of course Nino hadn’t managed to catch him this week, considering he’d been trying to avoid everyone! On the bright side, Nino really wasn’t too bad. He was genuine friends with Marinette, lowkey going out with Alya, and was always pretty nice. There were worse kids in the class to be talking to.

“I just listen to Earth music,” Fang said, shrugging.

“Like what?”

Like… well, when he had confessed his music tastes to Jagged Stone one time, he’d got told that emo was an insult to true rock, and that pop punk was an insult to punk, so he preferred not to tell anyone…

“Dude, I won’t judge,” Nino said. “Alix listens to Celtic squid metal. Ivan and Rose are both into screamo. Whatever it is, you’re good.”

Oh fine, there was no harm in telling Nino. “This morning I listened to Grand Theft Autumn on loop for like three hours…”

“Ah, I should have known! Good choice! Nath likes emo music too.”

The quiet redhead kid? Yeah, that wasn’t surprising. He definitely looked emo. Whether he acted emo or not Fang was not sure, since he had never actually heard Nath speak even once. Or if he had, he didn’t remember it. That kid was… not very memorable to him.

Nino was scrolling through something on his phone. “Emo music, emo music… ooh! How about The Ballad of Mona Lisa? I think Marinette would like that one!”

“Barely emo and very Parisian,” Fang muttered. How typical of Nino to go directly for a song featuring _La Joconde_ , as they called Mona Lisa here – the painting itself was right there in the Louvre when it wasn’t busy being stolen by akuma villains. In Fang’s opinion, the song was better than the painting.

“It’s a right bop, I think I’ll go for it. Thanks dude!”

Was that all? Oh good. Fang turned to go find a corner to stand in alone, only to be stopped by the tiny little gremlin in his class, who jumped up in front of him like the annoying feral monster she was.

“Oi alien kid! I need your help!”

Alien kid? He had a name! And everyone knew it!

“What do you want, tiny gremlin?” he snapped, narrowing his eyes.

Alix just laughed. “Tiny gremlin! Hah, I like that. I’m keeping it.”

“I was trying to insult you!”

“Cool. Anyway, you’re an alien, right? My brother keeps insisting that the Great Pyramid in Egypt is actually secretly an alien spaceship. Is that true?”

What? How did that make any sense at all? Wasn’t Alix’s brother apparently some historian guy at the Louvre or something? Humans were even more ridiculous than he’d thought if a guy like _that_ could be working at one of the most famous museums on the planet.

“Of course it’s not an alien spaceship, it’s just a pyramid,” he said.

“Aha, I knew it! I have to call Jalil and tell him! Thanks alien guy!” She hopped up and gave him a friendly punch in the arm. “It was nice to actually talk to you for once. Marinette keeps going on and on about you all the time. I told her she’s gone and befriended the wrong emo, but whatever.”

“Wait, what? What does Marinette say about me?!”

“A lot of stuff that sounds extremely fake – like that you’re secretly nice, and secretly kind, and you secretly have a sense of humour…”

Marinette really told all her friends about that?!

On the one hand, that was so sweet of her. She really appreciated him, and was even telling people! Now maybe he’d get more popular!

But on the other hand, this was not the time to be thinking good thoughts about Marinette!!! This whole stupid party was for HER, and it was stupid, and he didn’t want to have to participate, and she was way too popular, and… there that was better. Back to being annoyed.

Since he couldn’t think of a proper way to insult Marinette, he simply said, “Marinette is too nice for her own good,” and then turned around and stormed off.

Wasn’t it so inconvenient that he couldn’t get akumatized? It would be so cool if he could just turn into a supervillain and crash her party!

But then again, that would just make everyone feel sorry for her, and then she’d get even more popular…

Yeah. It was better that there were no akuma villains here. Just let her have a nice, boring, uneventful party, and then everyone would quickly forget about it. The most important part was the present he was going to give her – it was such a cool present, nothing else would compare.

She’d like it, right? Hopefully? There was no way she wouldn’t! His present had to be the best!

-

Marinette’s birthday so far had not been completely ideal. It was lovely to see her grandmother again, of course it was! But being dragged along to the zoo and made to go on all the kiddie rides, and eat a bunch of sweets that she didn’t even like, well…

It was alright. She had done it to make her grandma happy. And if her grandma was happy, that was the important thing!

Now at least here at her “surprise” party that she’d known about for several days already, she could properly relax. Her friends were here, her parents would probably show up with a cake soon – it was going to be great!

“I got you a present, Marinette!” Adrien said, holding out a little wrapped box at her. It was tiny enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

Everyone around her seemed to have stopped to watch. They all looked rather smug – did they know that she liked him?! That was so embarrassing!

“Thank you,” she mumbled, taking the gift off him and unwrapping it.

“Do you like it?”

She held it up to get a closer look. It was a little handmade bracelet, and one that looked incredibly familiar.

“It’s a friendship bracelet!” Adrien continued, smiling happily, oblivious to everyone’s matchmaking grins around him. “Just like that ‘lucky charm’ one you gave me before the gaming tournament that one time. This is to say thank you for being my friend.”

That was so kind of him! She didn’t even realize he still had that old bracelet!

“Thank you, I love it!” She tied it around her wrist, beaming at him. “Did you make it yourself?”

“Yes, with a little help from the internet. I’ve never made a friendship bracelet before.”

“Really? Not even for Chloé?”

She regretted saying it a second later, seeing his face fall momentarily.

“No, not even for Chloé,” he replied. “I did buy her one though. Anyway, I’m really glad you like it, Marinette! Happy birthday!”

“Thanks!”

“I’m kind of hungry now, I’ll go see if there’s any of those carrot macarons left, they’re so good.”

“Yes, please go eat…”

He waved and walked off. Alya immediately grabbed Marinette by the shoulders.

“Marinette! You just had a whole normal conversation with him!”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t go typical-nervous-Marinette even once!”

Oh right… that was true. She had managed to talk to Adrien just fine. In fact, that seemed to be happening frequently these days. Why was that?

Maybe because it was just… less stressful like this, thinking of him as her friend and not necessarily having _asking him out_ being the goal of the conversation? Just appreciating his company?

Whatever it was, it was refreshing. And at least now Adrien wouldn’t think she was a weirdo.

“There’s only one person left now to give you a present,” Alya said, putting an arm around Marinette. “Mr Emo Tsundere over in the corner.”

Marinette giggled. “You actually got him to come here?”

“It wasn’t me, he decided to totally on his own, I swear. Now go say hi to him!”

Alya gave Marinette a shove towards the corner of the park, where Fang was standing leaning against a tree in his usual Fang pose. As soon as he saw her he actually perked up a bit, to her surprise – she’d assumed he was going to be grumpy about this entire party.

“Marinette! Um… happy birthday.”

“Thank you!” she said. “It was nice of you to make it here.”

“Well obviously I did, I have to give you your birthday present.”

He didn’t seem to be holding anything in his hands. What present was he going to give her?

She didn’t get the chance to find out – at that moment came the sound of singing, mixed with the roars of some kind of engine. Marinette whipped round to see an akuma villain zooming into the park on a flying motorcycle accompanied by what looked like several angels, and singing some kind of folk song in a heavy Italian accent.

An akuma attack, right now! What bad timing!

But wait a second… was that…?

The villain leapt off her motorcycle and onto the ground striding up towards Marinette. Despite the green skin and red hair, the voice was unmistakeable.

Her grandma had been akumatized!

“Mamie?!” Marinette gasped.

“You have lied to your grandma!” the villain said, giving her a cold glare.

“Huh? No! I didn’t lie, I just – I just wasn’t 100% sure if this was going to be a surprise party, or if Alya really wanted me to go to the dentist with her, that’s why I didn’t know what to tell you–”

“It’s true!” Alya called, running over to defend Marinette.

The villain cocked a gun. “And what about all those sweets I gave you? You said you ate them, but I found them all intact in their wrappers!”

Oh, those disgusting sweets, they tasted like medicine…

“I’m sorry Mamie,” Marinette said, “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings!”

“I’m not your Mamie anymore! From now on I’m the Béfana! And I’m going to punish you for all your lies! How dare you leave your own grandmother behind, you spoiled brat?”

She pointed her gun directly at Marinette, ready to pull the trigger.

Oh, her poor grandma! Marinette really hadn’t meant to make her feel left out, not at all – it was all just a misunderstanding!

“Are you SERIOUS RIGHT NOW?” Fang snapped from over by the tree, crossing his arms and right back to his usual grumpiness. “So not only does Marinette get a massive birthday party like this where the entire freaking class attends, but now people are literally GETTING AKUMATIZED over not being able to hang out with her?! Give me a break! This is so stupid, I’m not bothering to help this time, I’m out of here…”

So he really was annoyed about the party after all! That was exactly what Marinette had expected. Had he just kept it hidden from her when he had been speaking to her just now? Or… or did actually seeing Marinette cheer him up enough to forget his annoyance for a while…?

She didn’t have time to contemplate it. Béfana swung her arm round and aimed her shot at Fang instead.

It hit him. The next second, he had turned into coal.

“So rude, insolent child! Everyone who is rude will be turned into coal! And now for you, Marinette…”

Welp, this was not good at all. Fang not helping because he was being petty again was one thing, but him actually being hit by an akuma villain for once and being out of commission for the rest of the battle? Completely another!

Marinette dodged the next shot, which whizzed over her head and turned poor Mylène to coal instead.

Alright, fine. As long as Chat Noir showed up, she would be okay. She just had to get out of here and transform into Ladybug.

Some of her classmates were attacking Béfana now, keeping her busy – whoa, since when had they turned into such heroes?! None of them had powers, and yet they would willingly fight an akuma villain just to protect her!

It gave her the energy she needed. Yes, an akuma attack on her birthday completely _sucked_ , but it was alright. She was going to save her grandma, and she was going to save her classmates!

-

Once Chat Noir had shown up, the battle had gone much better. He safely took her away to the Eiffel Tower and left her there to protect her from Béfana, Marinette had transformed, then together they’d beaten her. Her party had been postponed for the evening in order to give her parents enough time to make another cake – supposedly the one they had made before had accidentally fallen into the bin during the attack.

The most important thing was that her grandma wasn’t mad at her after being de-akumatized. A bit sad that her dear little Marinette was growing up so fast, maybe, but aside from that, she seemed genuinely over everything that had been upsetting her earlier. Thank goodness!

With that sorted, Marinette could properly enjoy her party this time. It was almost nicer at night like this – the park was very pretty in the dark, especially with all the disco lights Nino had set up to accompany his music. And the cake her parents had made was delicious! She was so lucky to have friends and family like these!

Now she just had to go get her final birthday present, and for that she had to go find…

Ah yes! There he was! Of course he was leaning against a tree being emo and antisocial, as if he would ever be doing anything else.

“Fang!” She ran over. “I’m glad you’re okay!”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, sounding a bit more miserable than when he usually spoke to her. “Listen, about earlier, uh, I know I was being kind of annoying. And stupid. I’m sorry. Even if you are really unnecessarily popular.”

He was clearly still very, very annoyed about it. But she burst into a smile all the same, in too much of a good mood to be brought down. “That’s alright!”

“Am I a real Parisian now? Since I know what it feels like to get killed in an akuma attack?”

He sounded annoyed about that, too. It was nice to see him being light-hearted about it, though. “That makes you more of a Parisian than me then, I’ve survived every akuma attack so far…”

She was glad to see that bring a grin to his face. He looked so much sweeter when he was smiling! If she could make that happen more often, that was all the better.

“Do you want your birthday present now?” he asked. “It’s the best present ever. Better than anything all that lot got you.”

“Yes please!”

“Okay then.” He cleared his throat. _“Shadow hamster!”_

A tiny black hamster appeared in his hands. He held it out at Marinette, an uncharacteristically bright smile on his face.

“Here you go! Happy birthday.”

For several seconds she stared at it in a shocked silence.

“Is… is that… a hamster?”

“Well duh, that’s why I said shadow hamster, isn’t it?”

He carefully put it into her hands. Expecting it to be as cold and dark as it looked, she was pleasantly surprised that it was warm and fluffy, just like a real hamster.

“I already checked with your parents, they’re fine if you have a pet hamster,” he said. “And it’s a magic hamster anyway so you don’t even need to feed it or anything. Unless you want to. Phew, it took me a while to figure out how to make this, I’d never made a shadow hamster before, I’ve been practising for the whole week…”

Marinette held the hamster up and looked at it closely. It was very similar to all the other shadow animals that Fang made, except of course, a lot cuter.

“Wait, you do like hamsters, right?” Fang continued, sounding a bit nervous now. “Um… did you like it? Marinette? …Oh god did I screw up? If you don’t want it I’ll get rid of it and get something else, I’m sorry–”

She snapped her brain back into action. “No no no! I do like it! I love it!”

“Oh! Okay good!”

“I’m just so surprised! I didn’t expect _this_ , I thought the carrot macarons were your present, this is so thoughtful…”

Now he was looking smug. “Is this the best birthday present you got?”

She thought about the “kwagatama” that Tikki gave her this morning, all the wonderful gifts her other classmates had got her, the fact that her grandma had taken the time out of her travels to come and visit.

“It’s one of the best,” she said.

“Hah, yes! I knew it would be the best!”

There he went, being as idiotic as always, and yet so adorable. He had really got her a pet hamster! She had always wanted a pet hamster, and he actually got one for her!! It was too tempting to hug him – but would he appreciate that? She settled for giving the hamster a cuddle instead.

“Thank you so much, Fang,” she said. “You’re a really awesome friend.”

He went slightly red. “Yeah, whatever…”

She still just wanted to hug him! Should she? Would it be a terrible idea? So much of the time he was so aloof, surely he wouldn’t want one. But what if he did?

“What are you going to name the hamster?” he asked her.

Oh right – a name!

A name…

She stopped dead to think.

What on earth was she going to name this hamster?!

“I’m getting more macarons, see you later Marinette.”

Watching him walk off, she wondered if she should tell him that the macarons were all run out. No, she couldn’t break his heart like that.

Anyway, for now she had to think of a name.

“Tikki, what do I name this hamster?” she whispered.

Tikki popped her head out of the purse with a grin on her face. “How about ‘the physical manifestation of a certain alien’s crush on you’?”

“What?! No! No way, that’s… no, he does not! He’s just… He got me this because he’s my friend!”

Tikki just shrugged and went back into the bag. Marinette held the hamster with one hand and with the other, slapped herself in the face so hard it stung. Was she awake right now? Was this happening?

She had a shadow hamster in her arms. And Fang had given it to her.

It was a token of friendship! That was what gifts were for! Tikki was probably just being cheesy!

And anyway, Marinette liked _Adrien_ , she had done for ages and would continue to do so for ages more. As proof, she needed to do something drastic at some point. Tell Adrien the truth somehow.

She… she needed the Girl Squad’s help. Yes, she had to assemble her own avengers! Alya, Mylène, Juleka, Rose, Alix. They could help her out. With them by her side, she could definitely ask Adrien out for real.

Yes. Next weekend, she would do it. She would gather the Girl Squad and formulate a plan to actually see this through. Adrien would finally be hers. She had to!

-

“Ochobot, you’re not going to believe this,” Fang said, not even waiting to get back to his hotel suite before giving a call to his good old power sphera friend after school the next day.

“I know, I already read your email,” Ochobot sighed. “The one about the robot in your class. Which you sent during class because you were too angry and impatient to wait.”

“It’s so unfair! Max and Markov really think they’re so _special_ huh, and everyone else is practically worshipping them now, as if a robot with feelings is anything new when I personally know PLENTY of robots with feelings! Like you!”

“But us power spheras are different! You’re telling me that someone in your class literally created an actual sentient robot, and you’re not amazed?”

“Why should I be amazed? I’m so annoyed! And there’s worse!”

Ochobot sounded rather bored. “What now?”

“The robot got akumatized today.”

“So?”

“An actual robot managed to get akumatized, and yet I can’t! According to Fu it’s because Markov is an Earthling and I’m not, which is stupid, but whatever.”

“I think you’re just salty,” Ochobot said. “You should make friends with Markov.”

“No way!”

“You said you wouldn’t make friends with Marinette, and now look.”

“That’s different! Marinette is completely different! Ugh, why do none of you guys ever understand?!”

Ochobot gave a very fake, robotic yawn. “I’m sleepy.”

“You’re a power sphera.”

“Yes, a sleepy power sphera. I need to go to sleep.”

Fang wished he’d video called instead of voice called, just so he could glare at him. “You just want to stop talking to me, don’t you?”

“Yes! You’re always complaining about everything! Why don’t you talk about things that make you happy for once?”

“But whenever I talk about Marinette, you all always start… start getting the wrong idea and…”

“I never said it had to be Marinette! Surely other things make you happy too?”

Heat was creeping up his cheeks – now he was glad for voice calling after all. “Never mind. Just go to sleep.”

“Really? You’re not going to talk to me about macarons and popularity? I know those make you happy!”

“I said go to sleep! Goodnight, Ochobot!”

He hastily ended the call. Was he still blushing? That was so annoying!

But anyway, speaking of Marinette…

He checked the class group chat to see if Marinette had decided on a name for her hamster yet. Nope – nothing so far. Just her posting plenty more selfies with it. While not being allowed to bring it to school, she had it with her practically the rest of the time, like a little sidekick.

It was so nice to see that she liked it so much. Not to mention, everyone knew that it was Fang’s present! Now he would get more popular, wouldn’t he?

For once, though, the popularity was an afterthought. If it made Marinette happy, that was the important thing.

Oh… what was happening to him? Popularity was NEVER an afterthought!

He stuffed his phone back in his pocket and doubled his pace. Marinette Dupain-Cheng was having far too much of an effect on him, with her kindness and charisma and everything else! He had to distract himself! He was not going to let some annoying, absurdly over-popular Parisian secret superhero get the better of him!

-

The weekend arrived again, bright and sunny. With it came Marinette’s plan to ask out Adrien – and that involved the Girl Squad.

Mylène, Juleka, Rose and Alix sat in Marinette’s room and watched as Alya and Marinette stood up in front of Marinette’s big calendar, ready to reveal the truth about why they had all been gathered here today.

Alya had been completely wonderful about it. She had come up with a flawless plan, one that was maybe a bit ridiculous, but surely couldn’t go wrong! How was it possible to be lucky enough to have a supportive best friend like her? Marinette had no idea what she would do without her!

“What I’m about to tell you, you must not tell anyone!” Alya said to the others. “This is absolutely top secret, okay?”

They all nodded. Phew. It was nice to be able to count on them too.

“Good! So, the truth is…” Alya put a comforting arm around Marinette. “Marinette here is totally crazy in love with a boy in our class!”

Alix just grinned. “Hah. It’s Fang.”

“WHAT?!” Marinette took a huge step back, almost tripping over, blood rushing to her face. “No! N-no not him! It’s Adrien!”

The others had already burst into laughter, and were now giving her rather pitying looks.

“Alright, that kinda makes sense too,” Alix said, shrugging.

Alya chuckled, giving Marinette a nudge. “See? Told you I’m not the only one thinking you’ve got a thing for that cute alien…”

“Alya, now is not the time!” Marinette hissed. “Back to the plan!”

“Alright, alright…”

Alya began explaining the mission to the others, who to their credit, paid proper attention. Everything was back on track. Good.

Had they really all been under the impression that she liked Fang?! But Adrien was the one she was always stuttering and being an idiot around!

Though she hadn’t been doing that with him at all lately…

Still! The reason she hung out with Fang so much was because he knew her secret identity as Ladybug! She could vent at him about anything, even things she couldn’t tell Alya, no matter how much she wished she could! That was the reason she spent so much time with him.

Or was that an excuse…?

Right. This was NOT the moment to be thinking about it. Fang was her friend, she enjoyed his company, she very much loved the hamster he’d got her that she still hadn’t named, that was all and that was PERFECTLY FINE FOR NOW.

At this moment, she had to focus all her attention onto the plan. Just like the Girl Squad were doing for her. That was right – they were doing this for _her!_ She had to follow through with it.

Time to think about Adrien. Time to _very forcefully and aggressively_ remind herself to think of Adrien.

-

The plan turned out to be a complete disaster. It might have been only a mild disaster, had it not been for the giant 50 foot tall baby suddenly showing up out of nowhere – what was wrong with Hawk Moth?! Akumatizing an actual infant, one who could barely even speak yet? That was just the lowest of the low!

At least Marinette had been able to de-akumatize poor baby August, along with Chat Noir’s help, and return him to his grateful mother. Oh, that poor baby! He was so adorable, he didn’t deserve to have something like that happen to him. At least he wouldn’t remember it.

Marinette would certainly remember it, though. It was impossible to forget the sight of a massive supervillain baby rampaging around the city like it was his personal playground.

Now, with the plan entirely wrecked, and the Girl Squad watching in terror from behind the nearest building as Marinette stood in front of Adrien just as he was about to get in his car and return home…

They were all expecting her to ask him out. That had been the whole point of today!

Well then, she simply had to do it.

“Would you like to go for a walk with me?” she asked.

Adrien smiled – only for his smile to fall as his chauffeur slammed the horn of the car, reminding him to hurry up.

“Ah, sorry Marinette, I don’t have time,” he said. “I think my bodyguard is in a bad mood today…”

Oops, that had been partially her fault. The plan had definitely inconvenienced that poor man much more than it should have.

“But if you want,” Adrien continued, the smile returning to his face, “you could come with us and we could drop you home along the way?”

“Oh! Sure.”

“Great!”

He opened the car door for her. Was this really happening? An actual chance with Adrien Agreste?

For some reason, she hesitated. Why did something about this just feel so… awkward? Just like the time she had danced with him?

Never mind about that – the Girl Squad were counting on her to make a move! She had to do this.

Getting into the car, she put on the seatbelt and tried to ignore how queasy she suddenly felt.

“You okay Marinette?” Adrien asked, getting in after her and shutting the door. The car began driving off.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Okay, well let me know if there’s anything you need…”

As usual, he was being cute and polite. That was how he always was. It was why she had fallen for him in the first place, way back near the start of the school year. It wasn’t because he was rich, or hot, or famous, or any of the other reasons he had so many fangirls. It was because Adrien Agreste was simply a very nice person.

And yet…

And _yet…_

Why was this feeling so different to how it had been before? No bubbly nerves, just a lingering sense of awkwardness. It wasn’t the same way as she used to feel. Not at all. Gradually, it had shifted, and she hadn’t even noticed.

Now it was hitting her.

She was just doing this because she expected herself to do it. Way back in the past she had told herself that this was the goal – that _Adrien_ was the goal. And no matter how much had changed since then, she did not adjust that goal. She expected herself to achieve it. The Girl Squad were expecting it right now. They were probably back there cheering for her, wanting her to give them all the details later.

And here she was, putting so much stress and pressure on herself by _making_ herself ask out Adrien. Because she had told herself that she would.

Only now was she realizing that she didn’t need to.

Maybe… maybe she didn’t even want to.

She turned to look at him. He certainly was very handsome, wasn’t he? No wonder he made such a great model. From an aesthetic point of view, she could certainly appreciate his pretty looks.

His personality, too, he was so friendly and kind! It was wonderful. Despite his isolated upbringing, he was such a sweetheart.

Marinette thought about confessing her love for him. She imagined it in her head, how it would happen, how it would make her feel, how he might react, what a relationship between them might be like in the future…

All it did was convince her of something that she really should have seen coming much sooner than this.

_I no longer have a crush on Adrien._

Just admitting it to herself was enough. Almost instantly, the weight on her mind lifted.

It was true! She just didn’t feel that way about Adrien anymore.

That was okay, right? Would the Girl Squad mind? No, they wouldn’t, they had already noticed that for themselves much quicker than Marinette had…

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Adrien asked. His voice did not give her a heart attack like it might have done a few months ago, despite being so nice to listen to.

“I promise I’m okay,” she said, really meaning it this time. “Just having an existential crisis, that’s all.”

“Aw, I get that. Seeing that giant baby made my life flash before my eyes.”

“Haha, me too! Poor August!”

“It’s a good thing Ladybug and Chat Noir were there to save him!”

Oh yes, Adrien was a Ladybug fan! She remembered that now – he’d always been starstruck whenever he saw her out and about, which was cute.

It was so refreshing to be thinking of him in this new light now. Not needing to worry about messing up or what might happen in the future. Adrien was her friend and classmate, and he cared about her! That was all that mattered to her!

The car stopped outside her bakery. She got out and waved Adrien goodbye, and the car drove off again.

Well, that had been an enlightening car journey indeed!

Marinette opened her purse a little. “Tikki, you know what? I don’t think I’m into Adrien anymore like that. Maybe I should move on.”

Tikki had been munching away on a cookie and now paused to look up at her. “Like Fang?”

She snapped the purse shut again without saying anything. No! Why did everyone keep saying that?!

That being said, she so had to tell Fang about this, at least as a rehearsal for breaking the news to the Girl Squad…

-

Fang himself had been planning on going and giving Ladybug and Chat Noir a hand with the ridiculous giant baby supervillain, at least until said villain had knocked over the Eiffel Tower. Then Fang had decided that he would sit back and relax, actually, and the tower could stay knocked over for as long as it wanted. Sadly it was all fixed again now…

“Can’t you just leave that dumb tower destroyed for once?” Fang asked down the phone. “It would really brighten my day.”

“What do you have against the Eiffel Tower?!” Marinette said. “Are you just mad that it’s more popular than you are?”

“N-no…”

“Anyway that’s not why I’m calling you! And I’m not calling to ask why you didn’t help us fight Gigantitan, because your reaction to the Eiffel Tower tells me everything I need to know.”

She knew him way too well at this point. “So why are you calling?”

“I sort of asked out Adrien.”

“Oh cool, good for you.” Finally! Now he wouldn’t have to worry about those two morons and their stupid love square ever again.

“No, not cool. It was a friendship thing, and you know what? I… I think I like it better that way. I don’t think I have a crush on Adrien anymore.”

“Is that why you can talk to him now?”

“Yeah, probably…”

Well, this was also good news. If Marinette wasn’t hyping herself up over Adrien anymore, she would get way less stressed out about it. And it would be far less frustrating to watch!

Poor Chat Noir though… his lady didn’t love him like that after all…

“I have to tell the Girl Squad now,” Marinette said. “They seem to have already guessed, though.”

Fang knew that – he remembered what Alya had said to him back at Chloé’s party. Surely she hadn’t told Marinette the same thing?!

“Are you going to tell Adrien too?” he asked her now.

“Nah, that would just make it really awkward, wouldn’t it? It’s better if Adrien never knows. So don’t tell him!”

“I won’t.”

“Thanks Fang. I guess I’ll go now, before the girls start having heart attacks waiting to hear from me about how things went… See you at school…”

That short a call? He was used to talking to Marinette for longer at this point. But if she had to go, then she had to go.

“See you at school,” he said. “And think of a name for the hamster!”

He heard her laughing on the other end before hanging up.

Laying back in his chair, he couldn’t help thinking harder about what he had just heard. Marinette told him first! Even before she told the rest of her friends! Was it because she was already used to telling him secrets at this point? The only person who knew more about her than he did was probably Tikki, and that little kwami spent her every waking moment with Marinette.

What had caused Marinette to go off Adrien recently? Adrien hadn’t changed at all. Not much had changed in general. In fact, the only really big change was…

Oh?

A thought hit him, and one that made him feel very smug indeed.

Was it that Marinette liked _him_ now instead?

Hah! Why shouldn’t she? He was awesome! And yes, he had denied it to Alya all that time ago, but maybe it was true, maybe Marinette did like him after all, and anyway she clearly wasn’t interested in Adrien right now so maybe that explained it…

The smug thoughts gave way to nervousness.

He spent a lot of time with Marinette. And liked hanging out with her a lot. And talking to her a lot. And really liked her a lot in general.

It was making him very nervous indeed.

No, this was nothing! Just his idiot brain being full of himself. Marinette probably didn’t like him like that. And anyway, even if she did – it did NOT go both ways!

He liked spending time with her because… because she reminded him of all his original friends who he missed so much! There, that was it! She was so heroic and brave and friendly, like Boboiboy, she had a fantastic sense of humour and was an expert at making him laugh, like Gopal, she was smart and hardworking and took her responsibilities seriously, like Yaya, and she could be so hyperactive and adorable, like Ying…

Yes! THAT was why he liked Marinette so much. It was because he missed his friends, despite the fact that he spoke to them pretty much every day. He still missed them a lot and Marinette was the closest replacement he could get.

There. That ought to stop his brain from being stupid.

But… but Marinette’s hair…

No! He grabbed the nearest textbook and gave himself a smack on the forehead.

That was shallow. That was really, seriously, just him being shallow. Marinette was gorgeous – so what? It meant absolutely nothing!

None of this meant anything. He was friends with her, and that was _perfect_. That was all he needed. And if he had to keep telling himself so, then he would! For as long as he had to!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel a bit bad for Adrien. He'll probably end up happy with Kagami at the end of this though, so that's good, right? Idk what to do with Luka, but I'm sure he's got plenty of cute kids at his own school to go for
> 
> Here be a long chapter. Mostly because I had already written a lot of this one ages ago, for uh reasons, hehe. I really need to slow down...

“I’m not wearing that,” Fang said immediately.

Marinette looked up from the design she had been showing him. “Why not?”

“It has sleeves.”

“But Paris is cold! You need sleeves!”

He crossed his arms. “Sleeves are annoying.”

“Didn’t you have sleeves on your old school uniform?”

“Yeah but I always rolled them up.”

She sighed. “Look, I know you like to show off your biceps or whatever, but I don’t want you getting ill from the bad weather here…”

Oh come on! He wasn’t showing off his biceps! Well… okay, yes he was, and it was nice that Marinette had noticed them, but still. He had never been a fan of sleeves.

“If you make me wear this jacket,” he said, “I’ll just end up taking it off and tying it round my waist half the time.”

“I’m fine with that. It’s still miles better than the jacket you’re wearing now!”

Alright fine, he couldn’t argue with that. He hadn’t realized that everyone would think his current jacket was such a fashion disaster, but it certainly was true that the one that Marinette had designed was pretty cool.

“Fine then,” he said. “I’ll wear this jacket thing you designed.”

Her face lit up in a huge smile. “Awesome! I’ll start making it soon then!”

“No rush, no rush…”

“It’s always so nice when people wear things I made for them. Adrien doesn’t wear the scarf that I got him very much, but he doesn’t know I’m the one who made it, so…”

For once she didn’t sound too upset about it. Oh yes – because she’d got over her crush on Adrien, of course.

He gave one of the Adrien pictures on the wall a flick. “Are you going to take these down then? Or leave them up for fashion inspiration or something?”

Marinette went a little pink in embarrassment. “Oh yikes, I will have to take those down soon, won’t I? What was I even thinking?!”

“I’m surprised he never figured it out, considering how obvious you were.”

“Heh, yeah… oh, and speaking of Adrien…”

She was fiddling with the edge of the design paper, still flushed.

“…me and some of the other kids in the class are going to go get ice cream from André’s tomorrow evening, and uh… did you want to come along?”

André’s ice cream? That weirdo? No way! People always went and got ice cream from him for their lame, super sappy, ultra-romantic and absurdly Parisian dates – of course he didn’t want to go! And – and especially not with _Marinette_ , because they weren’t a thing, so–

He stood up from his chair. “Ew. No.”

Any traces of a smile had disappeared from her face. “Why not?”

“I’m not getting _André’s_ ice cream! Why would you even ask?!”

“Because it’s polite? And I wanted to invite you along?”

“Well I’m not going,” he said stubbornly, pushing his glasses up and making very sure to do it with his middle finger. He wasn’t going to get ice cream with Marinette. No way. No way. No way. No way…

She was just frowning at him, clearly annoyed but not saying anything. Oops – had he been a bit too rude? She seemed a little hurt…

Tikki gulped down the last remnants of her cookie and whizzed up. “Fang, before you leave, could I speak with you privately about something?”

“Why? What do you want?”

“It’s important. Marinette, please stay here. Fang, come up on the balcony for a second, it won’t take long…”

What on earth could Tikki want to talk to him about that she couldn’t do with Marinette here? Marinette and Tikki were inseparable, they knew everything about each other. There was nothing that was secret between them.

Unless…

Unless Tikki was trying to matchmake or something?!

Fang followed Tikki up the ladder and slammed the trapdoor shut before wheeling round to face her. “Don’t even try it, okay, I know what you’re thinking but I’m not in love with Marinette and I don’t want to go get stupid ice cream with her! So–”

“No, not that!” Tikki squeaked in that high-pitched voice of hers. “I wanted to talk to you about Chat Noir’s identity!”

“Huh? Oh right…” He very quickly shut up, his face blazing.

“During the Dark Owl akuma attack the other day,” she explained, “Ladybug and Chat Noir had to detransform at one point to allow us kwamis to recharge. They kept their eyes closed so they didn’t see each other, but me and Plagg – that’s Chat Noir’s kwami – did see. We know now.”

“Wait, so you know who Chat Noir is now?”

“Yes. I know it’s Adrien.” She suddenly beamed at him. “And I want to thank you for not telling anyone about it, despite knowing the whole time, because wow! That must have been so frustrating! They’re in the same class and everything!”

Someone else who felt the same way, finally! “I know right?! It was complete hell! And it didn’t help that Marinette liked him but couldn’t even talk to him…”

“Exactly! Oh, I’m so relieved I can talk to you about it, at least!” She twirled around in the air, letting out a little laugh. “Imagine if I had to deal with this knowledge all alone? I suppose there’s always Plagg, and Master Fu too, but since I have to stay with Marinette most of the time, it’s unlikely I’d get to see them very much. But now there’s you!”

Fang was relieved too. “It’s nice there’s someone else I can talk to about all this… this ridiculousness.”

“It is kind of ridiculous, isn’t it? I’m used to it though, this has happened with other Ladybugs and Black Cats in the past too.”

“Including the weird love square thing they had going on?”

“Yes, including that.”

Fang winced. Poor Tikki, how painful must it be to watch that happening over and over?

At least this time she had a cool new alien friend to talk it over with. Yeah… Tikki counted as a friend too at this point. After all, they hung out a lot by proxy – Tikki was always just kind of _there_ whenever he was with Marinette. They were all used to it.

Now Tikki had calmed down a bit, and she floated there in the air with her tiny hands on her hips. “Now that’s out of the way, I have one more question for you before we go back inside.”

“Cool, ask me anything.”

“I’m curious. How do you really feel about Marinette?”

What?! She really was trying to matchmake after all?

“Don’t ask me that!” he snapped, walking past her and heading for the trapdoor.

How did he feel? _How did he feel?_ That was the thing – he didn’t KNOW! And he didn’t want to think about it!

Anyway, Marinette was way too popular and annoying, no matter how he felt he would never be able to forgive her for that, so why even bother…

Going back into Marinette’s room, he saw that she had picked up the hamster and was cuddling it. As soon as she saw him she gave him a glare.

“I think I’ll just share my ice cream with hamster Fang tomorrow instead.”

Fang almost tripped down the ladder. “YOU NAMED THE HAMSTER FANG???”

“Well Jagged’s crocodile is called Fang, so the hamster is named after him…”

Okay nope. NOPE. This was unforgiveable. More than the popularity thing. No way was he ever, EVER considering Marinette for real now that she had gone and replaced him with the hamster he had got her!!!

Not bothering to even say goodbye, he headed for the stairs and stormed out of the bakery.

-

What an evening. Marinette hated it when she accidentally got people akumatized.

She really hadn’t meant to hurt André’s feelings! But what she had told him was true. His ice cream was just ice cream. It wasn’t some kind of magical soulmate indicator. And anyway, where had the guy even got carrot ice cream from?! Marinette wasn’t sure she wanted to know what that would taste like.

At least it was all over. André had got akumatized, Ladybug and Chat Noir had defeated him, and all was back to normal…

But it wasn’t. Nothing was back to normal.

Not after what Chat Noir had confessed to her.

Standing on her balcony, watching the moon rise over the city, she wished there was someone she could tell about it. Of course there was Tikki! And Tikki was wonderful. But Tikki was immortal and had probably seen a mess like this a thousand times before.

Really, she wanted to talk to Fang. But he might still be mad at her about the hamster thing. And the fact that she had invited him to go get ice cream…

Seriously! Why did he have to be so defensive about it? It wasn’t like she was asking him out! Not properly! And even if she had, there was no need for him to go all _Chloé_ about it. One Dark Cupid had been enough, thanks.

There was a knock on the trapdoor. Hopefully that was her parents with a late night snack – she could really use one!

Going over, she opened it up to see–

“Fang?!”

He clambered out onto the balcony. “Hi.”

“What are you doing here?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing here? I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

“No, I mean…” She wasn’t sure whether or not to remind him, as glad as she was to see him here. “I thought you were in a bad mood.”

“Oh! The ice cream thing? Um…” He looked at the floor. “Sorry for being kind of stupid about it yesterday… it’s just that I hate the rest of the class! Yeah, that’s it. I hate them, and I didn’t want to go anywhere near them, so that’s why I didn’t want to go.”

She couldn’t help smiling – what an obvious lie. Fang actually got on fairly decently with the rest of the class these days, and she knew for a fact that he at least considered Alya and Nino as friends too.

“And what about the hamster?” she asked.

“I’m more popular than the hamster, so whatever.”

Popularity. It was always popularity with him. That was probably his favourite word. Behind “carrot”, anyway.

But hey, as annoyed about it as he was, at least he was willing to put it aside so he could hang out with Marinette again. The thought sent her spirits soaring.

Then she remembered Chat Noir, and her spirits went right back down again…

“Are you okay?” he asked, giving her a surprisingly soft look. It almost made her momentarily forget what had been troubling her.

Leaning on the balcony railing, she turned to look at the view. “Chat Noir told me he’s in love with me. Well, he’s in love with Ladybug.”

“Yeah? And?”

And what? She just stared at him.

“What, did you not know?” he said.

“Of course I didn’t know! How would I possibly know?”

“But he flirts with you all the time!”

“That’s just how he is! How should I know he was serious about it?!”

Fang was looking at her like she was crazy. Had he really known this whole time, and not bothered to even tell Marinette, because he genuinely thought it was that obvious?!

“Anyway, I told him I’m not interested,” she continued. “I think he was alright with it. I hope he was. Maybe he’ll move on now, like I did with Adrien.”

“The reporters are going to be annoyed, they all ship Ladynoir.”

She had to giggle at that. “I think most of the city does. Even Alya does!”

“Have you seen all the fanfics on the Ladyblog forums?”

“Unfortunately…”

Fang grinned. “Me and my friends read them out loud really dramatically during out video calls sometimes. It’s hilarious, especially because they’re all so bad at French. You should try it too!”

“Maybe I should!”

Oh, he was so good at cheering her up, wasn’t he? When he wasn’t being petty and selfish, that was. At least she was feeling a bit better now.

“I hope Chat’s not too upset,” she said now. “He was seriously trying to be really romantic. He made a candlelit dinner and gave me a rose and everything. But I just don’t want that! Not from him, anyway. I don’t really want to think about romance right now.”

Fang sighed, his smile gone. “Same… People in this city take it so seriously. It was never like that with my friends. We just didn’t care.”

Well he cared now. Marinette knew that. After all, he had been so annoyed when she ruined his chances with Lila…

At least he didn’t care about Lila anymore, and the girl herself had gone on holiday again as quickly as she’d arrived, so people didn’t talk about her much. Would she even return? Or was she too humiliated?

Marinette tried to watch the cars driving along on the street far below, but her eyes kept drifting over to the alien beside her. What must it have been like to have simply been dumped on this planet for several months, all alone, by his own brother? _Twice?_

“Tell me about your old adventures,” she said to him.

“Huh? Why?”

“Because I need a distraction, and you like showing off about yourself!”

He rolled his eyes at that, but started talking regardless. He described how he had only been 11 the first time he’d been sent to Earth, how he hated everyone immediately, how he got new powers and briefly lost his memory and…

It was interesting to listen to. Some of it was familiar based on things he had occasionally told her before.

But she found herself unable to tear her eyes away. Why did the moonlight make him look so…

_Right?_

It was like he was meant for night time, meant for moonlight. It was reflecting off his hair, his visor, his red eyes, even his awful jacket. Giving him a strange pale glow.

Gripping the balcony railing much tighter than she probably should, Marinette tried not to make it too obvious that she was staring. But really! What else could she do when he was so handsome in an otherworldly way, like some sort of ethereal vampire, nicer to look at than most humans she knew…?

For once she was glad he wasn’t wearing sleeves. Oh yes. No sleeves to get in the way for now…

“…and then Adu Du attacked us during our exam, and… Marinette? Are you listening?”

He waved a hand in front of her face. She hastily snapped herself out of whatever stupor she had fallen into – what had she been doing _that_ for?! Hopefully Fang hadn’t noticed her sort of… mildly… checking him out… because he was a very pretty alien, and that was it…

“I’m just tired!” she said. “Yeah. Tired. Because it’s late.”

“Then get some sleep,” he replied. “I’ll carry on tomorrow.”

He was leaving? Marinette rubbed her eyes. “It’s okay! You can stay for a while, keep going!”

“But you said you’re tired!”

“When am I not tired?”

“Good point.” He smiled at her, in a way that made her face very warm suddenly for some reason. “I’ll keep going then.”

Now he continued his story, most definitely telling it in a way that made him sound much more important and heroic than he had actually been. Marinette didn’t even mind, it was kind of adorable! He really just wanted her to think the best of him, didn’t she?

Well she did. Right now, at this moment, watching him, her heart beating faster with every passing second… yes, she very much thought the best of him.

This was not good, not good at all! But how could she help it? Far too tired to fight her own brain, she allowed herself to really enjoy this moment.

-

_Radiant. Carefree. Dreamy._

_ADRIEN. THE FRAGRANCE_ _™._

Fang was absolutely fuming.

Too much had been happening. First of all, the fact that the Sapotis had egged the Eiffel Tower during their attack, and so Fang had decided that he didn’t want to help defeat them actually, and Marinette had been annoyed enough to literally go and recruit Alya as a new superhero to help her out instead…

Really! Alya, getting a Miraculous!!! Okay, Rena Rouge was pretty cool, and at least she was just a one-off – but STILL!!! Fang had chosen not to help out one single time, and Rena could just storm in and snatch all that popularity for herself?!

But that was nothing compared to _Adrien the fragrance_ _™_.

That damn perfume was everywhere. On every billboard, every building, every bus, every train.

You couldn’t go five steps without seeing Adrien’s face somewhere. You couldn’t switch on a TV without hearing that cursed ad playing over and over and over again.

Adrien was already famous! Why did he need this? This was a level beyond anything that had ever happened before!

Fang couldn’t stand it. Every time he saw that bloody ad, he had to physically restrain himself from summoning his shadow dragon and destroying it. How he had managed not to outright murder Adrien Agreste, he had no idea.

Even after forcing Penny to let him make his own perfume, it just didn’t have the same effect. All the billboards were already taken, so there was hardly anywhere to promote it! And everyone had already spent all their money buying _Adrien the fragrance_ _™_. They didn’t want to buy Fang’s.

It was so unfair! His perfume was way better than Adrien’s! And Adrien didn’t even _like_ popularity, so why waste it on him?

That was exactly why Fang allowed himself to be petty right now.

Oh yes… poor Adrien was suffering at this very moment, and Fang did not lift a finger to help. Instead he scrolled the media on his phone, sitting there in his room and laughing while eating macarons.

Adrien was trying to hide from his fans! They were all stalking him round town while he tried to hide behind poor Marinette. Served him right for being so unnecessarily popular! And served Marinette right too, for enabling it. Fang knew perfectly well she had bought a bottle of that stupid perfume.

Wait a second…

One of the Adrien fan accounts had posted a blurry selfie with a fleeing Adrien and Marinette in the background.

That fan! He looked so familiar! He seemed to be dressed very similarly to Adrien, like he was purposely trying to emulate his clothing style.

But no. Surely it couldn’t be…

Was it?

Fang clicked on the account and checked the name.

_Wayhem, 14, Paris – STAN ADRIEN_ _♡ ♡ ♡_

No way! That TRAITOR!!!

Fang leapt off the chair, spilling half the macarons to the floor and not even caring for once. He had to go kill Wayhem. He had to!

-

There he was! Trying to cycle away, huh? He couldn’t escape!

Fang summoned a huge pair of shadow hands and knocked over the bike. Sadly Wayhem was wearing a helmet and wasn’t injured at all.

“Fang!” he said, scrambling to his feet in a panic. “Hey Fang! Uh what’s up? This isn’t what it looks like–”

“Wayhem what the FUCK?!” Fang strode right up to him, ready to murder if necessary. “I thought you were my biggest fan! And now you go and stan Adrien Agreste??? What is wrong with you???”

Wayhem curled in on himself, hands clasped together begging for forgiveness. “I’m so sorry Fang! Listen, I do still stan you! I promise! But right now Adrien’s been kidnapped by a monster, I have to go save him! Please just let me go in peace!”

Oh yeah, Fang knew about the akuma villain, he’d seen it in the distance on his way here. Some kind of giant creature like Godzilla or something. Not that he cared, since he had much more important things to be dealing with, like executing this traitor.

“Adrien already has millions of stans!” he snapped. “What about me, huh? I’m way cooler than Adrien Agreste! What’s he ever done in his life, huh? He makes perfumes, I fight space pirates – how is he any better than me?!”

“It’s a really good perfume though!”

“WAYHEM I SWEAR TO GOD–”

“Ahhh I’m sorry I’m sorry!” Wayhem was frantic now. “Tell you what, I’ll stan you on alternate days! One day Adrien, then one day you, then Adrien, then you – like that!! Is that better?”

“Fine. As long as you buy my perfume!”

“Yep! You got it!” Wayhem hurried back onto his bike. “I have to go rescue Adrien from that big monster now, see you later Fang!”

Said monster was on top of a nearby skyscraper, fighting Ladybug from the looks of it. Fang sighed – if he was this close by, he may as well help out, right? At least maybe it would get him some much needed popularity and distract everyone from that perfume for a while.

Wayhem began pedalling away at top speed and Fang quickly followed. The skyscraper was just down the street with a crowd formed around its base watching the battle, and sure enough, the monster was at the top with Adrien in his clutches.

No, wait – Adrien was not in the monster’s clutches. Instead, like a complete idiot, Adrien had leapt out of the monster’s grasp and was now in freefall down the side of the skyscraper.

Would he transform into Chat Noir to save his own life? No, he wouldn’t, he was still in public…

And about 5 seconds away from coming to a very nasty end down on the pavement.

Without thinking, Fang ran to the front of the crowd and summoned his shadow hands again. He used them to grab Adrien out of the air and bring him safely down to the ground.

“You okay?” he asked. Yes, he was still mad at the guy, but he wasn’t just going to let him die! Not even if Ladybug would fix everything in the end, like she always did. For starters, she usually needed a hand from her Chat Noir too, and that would be very difficult if the idiot cat went and died again like he frequently did.

Adrien was staring at him in complete shock. “Fang…? You… you s-saved me…”

Oh, that was right! He had saved the life of the famous, magnificent _Adrien Agreste_. “Yep. I just saved you. Because I’m awesome.”

Within a second Adrien had leapt at him in a hug. “Yes, you are awesome!!! You saved me!!! Thank you so much, Fang!”

Wait, _what?_

The crowd who had been watching were applauding. Good! Some popularity, finally!

Ladybug herself had managed to get free from the skyscraper battle and dropped to the ground, looking just as confused at Adrien’s enthusiasm as Fang was. “What just happened?”

“Fang saved me!” Adrien said, still not letting go. “He saved my life!”

“Alright, cool, now get off,” Fang muttered, pushing him away. Parisians were _way_ too sappy.

Hang on a second, what was that scent?

“Are you wearing my perfume?” he said.

Adrien nodded eagerly. “Yes! I love _Fang the fragrance™_ , it’s my favourite perfume ever! I bought like 3 bottles of it! I’m such a big fan of it! Well, I’m such a big fan of you in general, but uh… I’m a bit scared to say so, hehe…”

“You’re a fan of me?!”

“I know it’s a bit weird, since we’re classmates, but yeah! You’re so cool!”

Adrien was a huge fan of him. Adrien had bought his perfume. It just wasn’t sinking in.

Ladybug grabbed Wayhem’s helmet and shoved it on Adrien’s head. “Adrien, we need to get you out of here before Gorizilla attacks again! We don’t have time for this, you can fanboy over Fang later! And Fang, if you’re going to help then please keep Gorizilla occupied while I hide Adrien and wait for Chat Noir, okay?”

Fang crossed his arms. “What? No, I’m not helping.”

“You never help these days!”

“Well you never need my help…”

She gave him a soft smile – a smile that was just a little too Marinette. “I’m always grateful for your help, Fang.”

With that, she picked Adrien up in her arms and leapt off.

Ohhh… did she have to say something like that to him? Something so sweet and nice and Marinette-y? Right here, in public?

He forced his brain back into sensible thought. Okay, so there was an akuma villain on top of this building who was after Adrien. Cool, he could definitely keep it occupied for a while. It wouldn’t be difficult.

It still wasn’t sinking in, though – Adrien really had been such a big fan of his this whole time? Wow! Maybe Fang had been sort of… unnecessarily harsh in his view of him. The poor boy was so isolated, with a terrible home life – no wonder he wanted to be friends.

Yeah, maybe Fang should try a bit harder to be friendly to him. That would be nice. He would do that in the future.

But he still wasn’t going to buy Adrien’s stupid perfume!

-

It was rapidly becoming apparent to Fang that there was _something_ going on between Penny and Jagged.

The quick glances Penny would throw Jagged’s way when she thought no one was looking. The way Jagged would immediately soften his tone when talking to her. The fact that Jagged had _literally kissed her on the cheek_ this morning.

French people did it all the time, sure. But Jagged Stone was not French.

No, it meant something.

And now here, in the Dupain-Cheng bakery, while Jagged was busy making bread on air, Penny was watching him with a rather dreamy look on her face.

Fang absent-mindedly munched on a macaron. Usually he would have been livid at the fact that there was a freaking reality TV show being filmed at Marinette’s bakery – something about celebrities trying out living as an ordinary person for a day – and he was! He was livid! This bakery didn’t need any more exposure than it already had!

But on the other hand, it meant he got to spend more time with Marinette, so to tell the truth, he didn’t actually mind that much at all…

Marinette herself was busy being a clumsy fool and getting flour everywhere. He tried not to laugh – how typical of her! At least the cameras had stopped rolling for now, on an advertisement break. Obviously every TV show needed an ad break – how else were they supposed to promote Adrien’s overrated perfume?

Penny and Jagged went upstairs to go clean up the flour dust from Jagged’s outfit, and the camera crew shortly followed them up to go get them back before the ad break was over. Marinette’s parents breathed a sigh of relief. Poor Tom hadn’t looked all that comfortable in front of the cameras, he was probably glad to get a bit of a break.

“So,” Marinette said, taking Fang by the arm and bringing him over to the counter, “what’s up? How’s your day been?”

“Sort of awkward,” he admitted.

“Why? What happened?”

He lowered his voice. “I think Jagged and Penny have a thing for each other…”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up. “Aw, that’s so cute! I’m happy for them!”

“Pfffff, they haven’t told each other yet! And I’m not looking forward to having to see them being all mushy with each other…” He crossed his arms.

“Well they might not be uh, _mushy_ , in front of you, you know.”

“Hah, true. They’re not Parisians.”

“Hey, what are you saying?!”

Grinning at her, he gave her a friendly poke in the arm. “I remember perfectly well how you were with Adrien. You are a typical mushy Parisian.”

She had gone bright pink – hah, how adorable. “You can’t bring that up, that’s cheating! And – and anyway, didn’t you make out with Lila on a park bench that one time–”

Just hearing Lila’s name gave him a rather unpleasant heart attack. “Keep your voice down about that!”

She had started giggling now, and all Fang could do was roll his eyes and try to hide his smile.

Then he noticed what was happening on the TV screen.

“Uhhhh… Marinette…”

“What?”

Words failed him. He just pointed at the screen.

From the looks of it, Jagged and Penny had got lost on the way upstairs and ended up in Marinette’s room. And now the TV crew were in there.

Filming.

Live on TV.

In Marinette’s bedroom.

_Which was full to the brim with pictures of Adrien Agreste._

Marinette had grabbed the screen and was staring in horror. “No no no no NO NO NO NO NO…”

The next second she had run out of the room and was zooming up the stairs at top speed. Fang hurried to follow – he didn’t know exactly what he could do to help, but he knew that poor Marinette did NOT deserve her secret crush revealed to the entire city on live TV.

Well, her ex-crush… was that better or worse? At least she didn’t feel that way about Adrien anymore. But this would still be horribly embarrassing.

Marinette burst through the trapdoor. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM???”

Fang popped his head up into the room to see that out of everyone in there, at least Penny had the decency to look apologetic.

“Sorry Marinette, we couldn’t find the bathroom,” she said quickly.

“Can everyone leave now?!” Marinette yelled. “And stop filming everything! This is my room!!!”

To Fang’s surprise, she pulled him up into the room with her and clung onto his arm for support. Was she going to cry? It seemed likely…

Penny took charge of the situation, as always. “You heard Miss Dupain-Cheng – everyone leave now!”

Almost immediately everyone started yelling at her.

“Penny, you just disconnected the TV cable!”

“Penny, we’re on live TV!”

“Penny, is this organic flour? I’m allergic to the normal kind!”

“Penny, connect the cable!”

“No Penny, don’t! Make them leave my room first!”

“Penny that was live TV you just disconnected–”

Whatever was going on, Fang knew for a fact that an akuma was on its way. Either Penny or Marinette. Penny had had it coming for a long time, considering how much stress she was always under. Only a matter of time before she…

“STOP!!! ENOUGH!!!”

Yep, there it was. Penny Rolling had finally snapped.

“EVERYONE OUT!! OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT–”

She herded everyone out of the room, leaving only Marinette and Fang, and then went out herself and slammed the trapdoor shut. Even then, they could hear her still yelling at the others.

Okay, yeah. Unless she calmed down somehow or Hawk Moth was busy right now, the chances of her getting akumatized were _very high_.

But then again… it was the same with Marinette…

“Everyone in Paris just saw these!!” Marinette ran over to the corner of the room where she sank to the floor, clutching her knees to her chest. “This is a disaster!!”

Tikki popped out of her pocket. “Hey, it’s not too bad…”

“Yes it is, Tikki! When this programme gets put on TV, everyone will see it! All my classmates will laugh at me forever!! Adrien will think I’m a weirdo when the truth is I don’t even like him like that!!! And now no one will believe me about it!!!!!”

“Um, it’s too late, the show is live so they’ve already seen it…”

For a few seconds Marinette was silent. Then she curled up and slammed her face into her knees in a complete and utter freak-out. “THIS IS A DISASTER THIS IS A DISASTER THIS IS A DISASTER THIS IS A DISASTER THIS IS…”

If this carried on she would be akumatized for sure. And Marinette being akumatized would be very, VERY bad in every way possible.

Tikki turned to Fang with a pleading look on her face. “A little help here?”

He froze up. “W… what should I do?”

“I don’t know, something!”

She was right. If Marinette couldn’t calm down, all of Paris was on the line. Ladybug herself getting akumatized would spell certain doom.

Alright then…

Fang went over and sat down next to her. What could he even say that would make her feel better? She was currently crying too much to even be able to listen, probably. And he wasn’t exactly good at being nice to people. Being annoying? Yeah, he was much better at that. And that was the complete opposite of what Marinette needed right now.

Just watching her, it hit him…

Seeing Marinette upset _hurt_.

It really did. Just like actual physical pain. Here she was crying and panicking, and it was like a solid punch to the gut.

He couldn’t stand seeing her truly upset – he couldn’t, he just couldn’t. Why was it this painful?!

It didn’t matter. Even akumas didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered right now was making Marinette feel better, because she didn’t deserve to be upset.

He just wanted to make her happy.

That was all he wanted, and it was hitting him all at once. Marinette needed to be happy. She had to be. And he would do anything to make it happen.

Stuffing down any feelings of awkwardness, he put his arms around her and hugged her. Almost instantly she calmed down a little.

Whoa… that had worked?

Her sobs were subsiding now. She lifted her face away from her knees and wiped the tears out of her eyes.

“Thanks…”

“Whatever,” he mumbled, still holding her. Just in case. If he let go, she might start crying again, and he couldn’t bear it…

“I should have taken those photos down,” she said now, managing to grin a little. “But I was being lazy, I kept telling myself I’d do it later, and I sorta stopped noticing they were even there after a while…”

“I’ll take them down for you.”

He moved to pull away from the hug, only for Marinette to suddenly turn around and pull him in again.

Wait, was she…

…hugging him back???

Well, she was clinging onto him tight, and resting against him, pressing her face into his shoulder, so much he could feel her breathing…

She was. She was hugging him.

Phew… it had worked after all. Hugging really had made her feel better.

Hugging HIM really had made her feel better…

It had better stay that way. Fang was not sure when exactly he had ended up close enough with Marinette that the mere thought of her crying was the emotional equivalent to being stabbed with a cactus, but he couldn’t deny it.

He really, really cared about her.

“Take the photos down later,” she murmured. “I just… really need a hug right now.”

Aye aye then. He pulled her even closer and just hugged her so tight, more than he had done with anyone in a long time. Or ever, maybe.

Huh, he hadn’t realized his hand was in her hair. Really, it was an interesting shade of black for human standards – almost looking blue-ish in the light. Absent-mindedly, he ran a finger through it. It was just as smooth and silky as it looked.

Was this a cuddle?

It was nice… very nice…

They jumped apart at the sudden sound of the TV. Tikki was over by the computer screen having just turned it on, looking mildly horrified.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it would be so loud! I just wanted to check what was going on downstairs… uh, I didn’t mean to disturb you, you keep hugging…”

No way, not now. The awkwardness was flooding right back in – had that really just happened?

Fang didn’t have time to think about it. There seemed to be some kind of commotion going on over on the computer screen. He and Marinette both ran over to look.

Everyone downstairs appeared to be arguing. There wasn’t even any specific reason. It looked like a complete mess. Things were getting knocked over, people pushing each other…

“It’s an akuma villain!” Marinette said. “See? Look!”

Oh – that was why things were getting knocked over. Some kind of very ninja-esque akuma villain was popping up and causing mayhem, then somehow vanishing again. A very punk-looking akuma villain, for the short time they were visible onscreen.

“That villain stole my old powers!” Fang said, the usual petty rage flooding back into him and getting rid of… well, whatever that mood just now had been.

“What do you mean?”

“I used to have perforation powers before I got these shadow ones! The power to become intangible and go through stuff! That’s what this villain is doing!”

“Oh, true!”

The villain had stopped jumping through the walls now and was yelling at Jagged and the others. The voice was familiar.

“It’s Penny!” Tikki gasped. “Poor Penny got akumatized!”

That wasn’t even remotely a surprise. But what was a surprise was that Fang’s sense of protection kicked in immediately – how dare Hawk Moth mess with Penny when she was already so stressed out?!

“I’m going to go save her,” he said immediately, clenching a fist.

Marinette put a hand on his shoulder. “With my help, of course!”

“Are you um… are you okay? I mean because just now you were…”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Tikki, spots on!”

Tikki flew into Marinette’s earrings with a flash of light, leaving Marinette standing there as Ladybug.

“You ready Fang? Let’s go!”

How did she bounce back so quickly? Just now she had been crying her heart out! She was honestly so strong, and such a bright ray of sunshine, no wonder she hadn’t been akumatized before when nothing could keep her down for long…

No wait, this wasn’t the time to be appreciating Marinette – why was he always doing that so much these days?!

Never mind that right now. Time to go defeat this akuma villain. Time to go save poor Penny.

-

For once it was a long, arduous, stressful battle. Fang’s shadow powers did not give him any advantage over akumatized Penny – or “Troublemaker”, as she was calling herself. It made life so difficult. Eventually Marinette had managed to defeat her and de-akumatize her, but _wow_. Penny had been a very tough villain indeed.

At least she was alright now…

“PENNY!”

Jagged ran across the entire length of the bakery floor and launched himself at her in a hug, shocking the life out of her.

“Penny, I’m so glad you’re okay! What would I do without you?”

Fang gave Marinette a look – a _see, what did I tell you?_ look. He had been right, hadn’t he? Those two were definitely into each other. He just hoped they would sort it all out when he wasn’t around so he wouldn’t have to deal with it…

“Come on Jagged, we have to leave now!” Bob Roth was saying, going over to them and prising them apart. “This whole TV show was a complete disaster and it’s all your fault–”

Jagged shoved him aside. “Go away! Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“You can hug Penny back at the hotel, can’t you?!”

“Fine! Come on Penny!” He grabbed his guitar and marched towards the door, Penny quickly following. “Oh, and thank you Marinette and Marinette’s parents! You were great fun! Bob, you were not fun at all.”

Bob just scowled but did not say anything.

“We’re still getting paid for this, right?” Sabine asked.

“Yes,” Bob said, rolling his eyes. “But don’t expect us to ever be back again.”

With that, he followed Jagged and Penny out of the door and slammed it behind him.

Fang sighed. He’d been forgotten about again, as always. He didn’t feel like a sidekick at all. Though maybe that was better, because sidekicks were always in the shadows, and he wanted to be as popular as possible. But if he didn’t keep up with them then he would have to walk all the way back to the hotel, which would be annoying. Plus, it was getting late in Malaysia – his friends were waiting for a call.

About to leave, Marinette took his hand and pulled him back. “Fang! Wait!”

“What?” he said. “I have to go, I told my friends I’d call them before it gets too late…”

She smiled up at him – that sweet, sunny Marinette smile he was getting so used to seeing. “I just wanted to say thank you for making me feel better earlier. You know, about the pictures and everything.”

Oh god, she had brought it up. And wanted to talk about it. “Yeah, whatever...”

“It was really nice of you!”

He couldn’t even look at her. “Well you’re really nice all the time, so…”

“I’m glad it’s rubbing off on you then!”

Oh, so she liked it when he was super nice to her? To be fair, most people did. But everything was different with Marinette, even the way he felt was different…

The way she was smiling at him now, he just couldn’t get enough of it. She was too sweet. Just like her macarons.

His brain running on autopilot, he took a step forward and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

Then he realized what he had done and stepped back again in horror.

“I’m just being French!!!” he said quickly. “All you French people, you’re always doing that, right? So – so I’m d-doing it too! To be French! That’s why I did that, okay?!”

For a few seconds she simply stared in surprise. But then, to Fang’s immense annoyance, she began giggling. “Heh… sure…”

“Seriously!!!”

“If you say so! Hehee…”

Ugh, even when she was laughing at him it was just so cute. This was so unfair, it was going to kill him.

Not even saying anything else, he turned and strode out of the door.

Well… why had he done it, anyway?

Obviously not as a typical Parisian greeting, it didn’t work like that and she knew it. This was more like a…

No! This wasn’t like a Jagged and Penny thing! He cared about Marinette a lot, that was all! It was the same reason as why he had hugged her earlier. He wanted her to be happy.

He… he wanted to hug her again, too…

Ohhh, his brain was on a sugar rush right now without even having eaten much sugar. Or at least, it felt like it. Marinette herself was so sweet it was just dizzying. Enough to cause his blood sugar to rise to ridiculous levels.

Okay fine! He wanted to hug her again, _a lot_ , his heart sped up just thinking about it. How could he deny just how much he cared about her? Marinette was his friend, he wanted to be there for her… and be with her… so much…

And now he just couldn’t stop thinking about her!

He ran a hand through his hair, noticing with alarm that he was sweating. Oh no. No, no, no, NO.

That was it. He was in way too deep now. Already past the point of no return without even realizing it.

There was no way to deny it now. He had fallen for her so hard…


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for a bit of a gap between the updates, this has been an incredibly busy week and I didn't get much time to write! But here I am, still managing to churn out another chapter anyway, because I'm a little too obsessed. I'm pretty sure we're more than halfway through now.
> 
> Hmm. This fic will definitely have a happy ending, I promise. Doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be 100% lighthearted all the way through, but... happy ending. Yes.

Marinette managed to creep into the locker room unseen. So far so good! The longer she could go without anyone interacting with her, the more likely they were to have forgotten about that disastrous TV show. Of course she had already vented at Alya about it, and Fang had been there at the time, but she didn’t want to discuss it with anyone else. And especially not Adrien!

She opened her locker, put her bag in, and allowed herself to take a second to just breathe. No one else was around. It was okay. She would get through this.

Then she closed the locker, only to be given a heart attack by someone suddenly standing right next to her.

“Hi Marinette!”

“ADRIEN?!”

She squawked and leapt backwards. How the heck had Adrien Agreste got in here without her even noticing?!

“Are you okay?” he asked her. “I saw the show yesterday, and…”

“You watched that? Ughhh…” Giving herself a smack on the forehead, she turned away from him. “That’s so embarrassing.”

“I’m sorry that happened, that was a real invasion of your privacy.”

There he was, being all polite and kind as usual. On the inside he probably thought she was some kind of creep for having pictures of him on every inch of her bedroom walls, didn’t he?

“About the todographs in my room–” she began.

“You mean the photographs?”

“Exactly, the grotographs! Well um… it’s for fashion inspiration! That’s why I have those. Because you’re a model, and… you wear nice fashion… so…”

He was watching her with those innocent, wide eyes, clearly believing the lies she was spouting. Poor thing. He didn’t deserve to be lied to. If anything, lying to him about it was just bringing back all her old nerves, and she didn’t want that. No more “todographs” and various blunders. Time to be honest with Adrien from now on.

Marinette sighed. “Okay fine, that’s not true. The truth is, I… I used to have a huge crush on you. And that’s why I had pictures of you everywhere. The crush has been gone for a while, I swear – I mean I still like you, of course! But as a friend. And I was meaning to take down those photos but I honestly just kept forgetting! Haha, kind of silly, huh? I hope it wasn’t too embarrassing for you, I don’t want to make things awkward between us…”

There, had that been alright? From his reaction she couldn’t tell – Adrien seemed to have a very good poker face.

“You had a crush on me?” he asked.

“Yeah. For a little while.”

“Oh…” He smiled. “That explains some things.”

“Huh? What things?”

The smile had morphed into an outright grin. “Well first of all the _todographs_ in your room…”

Was he joking around with her?! She gave him a gentle shove. “Hey! I put a lot of effort into collecting those _todographs!”_

“Good point, that’s the best collection of them I’ve seen so far!” He chuckled, then put an arm around her. “Seriously, don’t worry about it though. I’m not embarrassed at all! And it doesn’t make things awkward. I’m really glad you’re my friend, Marinette.”

Back in the day, she would have probably swooned to the point of fainting if Adrien had put his arm around her like this. But right now? All it did was make her feel a lot better about having trusted him with the truth.

“I’m glad you’re my friend too!” she said. “And thank you for taking it so well.”

“Of course. That’s what friends are for. Hey – you do like fashion though, right? You could always come along to my next photo shoot! They’re pretty boring for me, but it would be better with you there. And you’ll get to learn a lot!”

An invitation to an Agreste photo shoot! That would be so cool!

“Yes please!” She beamed at him, her mood just getting better and better. “I could get some more outfit ideas for Fang…”

Adrien winked at her. “Ah right, I see.”

“Huh? See what?”

“I just realized why you stopped having a crush on me.”

“W-what do you mean?” Aware that she was blushing, and that it was nothing to do with Adrien himself this time, she tried to put on a neutral, unfazed expression. Judging by the knowing look Adrien was giving her, it must have failed spectacularly.

“If you want me to help set you up with him, just ask,” he said. “I tried to set Nino up with you once actually, do you remember that? At the zoo?”

Marinette nodded eagerly, glad to latch onto a topic of discussion that was nothing to do with a certain alien who she didn’t want to think about right now. “I remember that! And Alya was trying to set me up with you at the same time, what a mess!”

“Well don’t worry, it won’t be a mess this time! I think Fang likes you already anyway, so–”

“Let’s talk about the todographs again!” Marinette said quickly. “Yes! Haha… todographs…”

Adrien leaned in, looking sly. “What, did you want to replace all those Adrien todographs with Fang todographs instead?”

What was he doing?! Was he really that desperate to play wingman after doing such a bad job at it with Nino?

Trying to ignore how her face was heating up, Marinette looked down at the floor and scratched the back of her neck. “I can’t… I hang out with him all the time in my room, he would notice… And anyway! I don’t… it’s not like that…”

Oh, she couldn’t start thinking about Fang right here, right now, or she’d end up accidentally daydreaming about the time he had hugged her yesterday, like she had been doing all evening yesterday with no clue why!

Alright, she did know why. But admitting it to herself would be opening another can of worms entirely, so for now, she chose to keep it stuffed inside and hoped it would go away soon.

“You have good taste,” Adrien said, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Anyway, I’ll see you soon. Let me know if you do want my help, okay? I’m always free to help out!”

Marinette just mumbled something in reply and waved at him as he walked off. The second he was through the door, Tikki whizzed out of Marinette’s pocket.

“Well done Marinette! I’m so proud of you for finally telling Adrien about your crush on him!”

“Several weeks too late,” Marinette said, giving Tikki an affectionate poke. “But thank you.”

“That was good practice. Now go tell Fang!”

“What?! Not you too!” Marinette gave her a much harder poke. “It’s not like that!”

“Actually,” Tikki said, feigning a thoughtful expression, “it’s not Fang you need to admit anything to. First it’s _yourself!”_

“But I don’t have anything to admit to myself! I don’t… I don’t have a crush on…”

The words felt wrong just saying it. And plus, she knew it was wrong.

“Fine,” she whispered. “I… maybehavealittlecrushonfang. But it’s nothing big! Not a big deal! He doesn’t have to know!”

“Hmm. A little bit of progress is better than none at all.”

“What do you mean?!”

The bell rang for class, and Tikki just grinned and flew back into Marinette’s pocket.

Oh no, class! Everyone would be there! And they all must have seen the TV show! Of course, how could Marinette forget that she would have to face them all so soon?

Well, at least Adrien was out of the way now. He knew the truth, he was cool with it, and she didn’t have anything to worry about with him anymore. It really was a huge weight off her mind. And Alya knew too of course – she would always be willing to help defend Marinette from anyone trying to tease her about it.

Fang would be there too…

Marinette hid her blushing face in her sleeves, trying to calm herself down. Alright, she liked him a bit! But she couldn’t let that distract her. Anyway, he sat in the back row, so it wasn’t like she would have to directly see him. Otherwise she might end up staring and daydreaming about that hug again…

It was a friendship hug, she told herself firmly. And that thing afterwards, when he had kissed her cheek and then aggressively denied it being anything other than normal Parisian behaviour… yes, that was friendship too! It was all friendship. The fact that he was very pleasant to look at, from an aesthetic point of view, shouldn’t have to change that. It shouldn’t affect anything at all.

That was what Marinette told herself. This… this _very mild_ crush on him that she had, it was purely because he was so very handsome. That was all. It was nothing to do with how much she enjoyed his company, and how oddly endearing his silly, almost narcissistic attitude was, and how she spent a lot of time thinking about him…

No, that was nothing to do with it! This wasn’t a big deal.

Taking a deep breath, she buried all romantic thoughts deep within her brain, and set off for the classroom.

-

“Please get that crocodile out of my line of sight or I’ll kill it the next time I see it,” Fang said.

On the phone screen in front of him were his old friends, sat at the kokotiam, and that stupid crocodile who dared commit the crime of sharing his name was sat right beside them. Somehow it was wearing a school uniform, complete with a pair of glasses that looked suspiciously similar to Fang’s own.

“Aw, but he’s our friend!” Yaya said, pouting and giving the croc a stroke. “And he wants to be your friend too. Isn’t that right, Fang? You want to be Alien Fang’s friend too, right?”

“Alien Fang???”

“Yes, in order to differentiate between the two of you, we call the croc by his name, and we call you ‘Alien Fang’ now.”

Just hearing that made his blood boil. “Hey! I’m the original Fang! That crocodile is just – he’s just an impostor, you can’t have replaced me with him, he’s way less cool and popular and–”

“Actually he’s more popular,” Gopal said. “I’ve been taking weekly surveys and the croc has been consistently outperforming you in almost every category.”

“WHAT?!”

“That’s not quite true!” Yaya said hastily. “Personally I think the wording of the questions on the surveys was biased. It’s true that the crocodile has more of a day-to-day effect on people’s lives here, so they naturally think of him more often, and so he has a high popularity that way. But your Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng keeps you relevant, so don’t worry! Your popularity hasn’t been dwindling at all while you’re over there, I promise.”

Just hearing the words _Marinette Dupain-Cheng_ was enough to calm his anger down. It also gave him a sudden spike of adrenaline, which wasn’t all that unexpected, considering his rather strong feelings about her these days…

“Where actually are you?” Ying asked, frowning at the screen. “It looks so dark, we can hardly see you.”

“Oh, I’m inside a school locker,” Fang answered.

“What? Why?!”

“Because there’s a zombie apocalypse going on right now.”

“And you’re not helping fight it?!”

“I’m not allowed – this akuma attack was caused by Chloé and all the zombies are chasing her, so I can’t interact or it’ll break the truce. Also they’re French zombies who spread their infection by kissing, which is super gross, I’m not going near them. Anyway, why should I help?”

“You’d get to hang out with your girlfriend more.”

Fang was very glad that he was inside a dimly lit locker right now, where none of them could see him blushing. “Marinette is not my girlfriend!”

“Not _yet.”_

“It’s not happening! She’s… she’s too popular and annoying, I would never…”

Boboiboy had been too busy helping his grandfather serve customers to take part in the conversation, but now he came over to the camera with a grin. “You should get a guitar and serenade her, Alien Fang!”

“Don’t call me Alien Fang!” he snapped. “And – and I’m not serenading her! Jeez!”

“Why not? You did it to me that one time.”

“That was different, I was genuinely just trying to put you to sleep! Not that it even worked. Anyway, I’m not serenading Marinette, no way.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I…”

He paused to think. Honestly, what was he going to do? It was all very well to daydream about very unrealistic scenarios, but it wasn’t exactly like he could marry Marinette and have a red carrot wedding cake in real life, so…

“I’m not doing anything at all,” he said finally. “Marinette is my friend, but she’s also really overrated and it’s annoying. If I really… went out with her… she would just get even more popular from the fact that she’s going out with an alien. And I can’t let that happen.”

There was no way he was even letting himself contemplate the idea of it happening in reality. There was a very strong boundary between the inside of his brain and the outside, and he preferred to keep it that way. No matter how he felt about Marinette, he couldn’t allow it to change a single thing.

His friends were all just looking at him in disappointment.

“Probe is going to cry when I tell him about this,” Gopal said. “I know he’s technically on the evil side and I’m not meant to be talking to him, but he’s such a loyal customer! He always buys the latest chapter of the Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng as soon as it’s available. And he’s the biggest Fanginette shipper…”

“The _what?!”_ Fang almost dropped his phone.

“He’s been rooting for you and Marinette to get together since the start! So he’ll be really disappointed if you don’t.”

“He won’t be the only one,” Ying added. “Lots of people have been thinking it. No pressure, though!”

Pressure? Hearing all this, it wasn’t even pressure! It was just… how to explain…

Fang sighed. “Okay listen… d-don’t laugh at me for this, okay? But… I do like Marinette. And maybe if she wasn’t so popular, I would tell her. And then you’d get your… your stupid Fanginette or whatever. But I’m not going to do it, so stop tempting me by telling me how much everyone wants me to!”

Just having said _I do like Marinette_ out loud for once, actually directly outright telling someone – it was strangely exhilarating. He hadn’t done that before about anyone he had liked, ever.

Somehow it made this whole thing seem so much more real.

“Awww, you’re so sweet!” Yaya said to him, to his surprise. “This is just like one of those teenage movies! You’re so conflicted about your feelings for Marinette, it’s the sweetest thing! Fang, don’t you agree?”

“No, of course not, it’s not sw–”

“Not you, Alien Fang! I was talking to Fang.”

Not that crocodile again! Fang had just about had enough.

“I think Ladybug’s fixed everything, I need to go,” he lied. “I’ll talk to you later. Keep making sure I’m still popular over there. And rename that damn crocodile!”

Gopal gave the croc a protective hug. “We’re not renaming him! We should just start calling you ‘Pang’ again, that would be better–”

Fang just hung up without another word.

That crocodile! It just made him want to punch a wall!! How could his friends so easily replace him like that?! And with such little shame!!!

If only Kaizo hadn’t sent him here in the first place and traded him away like that, then he would still have his old life!

But then he would never have met Marinette…

He sat down on the cold locker floor, hugging his knees to fit in the cramped space. Life without Marinette was unthinkable now. So used to her presence, so used to her company, so used to her friendship. It was better to have come here and known her for a while, than to never have known her at all.

It suddenly hit him – he wasn’t going to be in Paris forever. Kaizo would be back to pick him up in a few months. Plenty of his time here was already up.

Was it even worth giving things a shot? What was the point, if he would just have to leave again afterwards and act like this had never happened? Unlike last time, he couldn’t just choose to stay – he already had a group of friends back in Malaysia who he knew he belonged with. And he knew for a fact that he didn’t belong here in Paris.

In some ways, though, he wanted to belong…

But – but getting together with Marinette wasn’t the solution! Right?

-

Marinette waited on her balcony, looking at the clock on her phone. Only a few minutes until Fang would show up, and she could finally cheer him up a bit! The past few days he had seemed much more miserable than normal. Then again, that was probably due to his recent “uselessness” during akuma attacks…

The Zombizou one was completely his fault for making that truce with Chloé in the first place, of course. Marinette had really had her hands full trying to sort that one out without his help – an entire zombie apocalypse, right here in Paris! It was more stressful than the usual brand of akuma.

Then had come Syren, some kind of yandere mermaid who had flooded the whole city with tidal waves that ripped through the streets, and dragged Kim underwater with her (not that Kim seemed to mind). At least Master Fu had figured out how to give Ladybug and Chat Noir water power ups and let them become partial mermaids too. But poor Fang hadn’t been able to do a single thing from above the water line, and just stood there with his arms crossed while snarking about how he already knew someone with “much cooler” elemental powers!

After that was Anansi, which was the akumatized form of Alya’s big sister. She had created a spider’s web that not only had trapped Chat Noir, but Fang too! He hadn’t been happy about that at all. Marinette had ended up recruiting Nino for help, temporarily giving him the turtle Miraculous similar to how she had made Alya a temporary hero a few times too.

Then there was today…

Due to the music festival, Marinette had spent her day hanging out with Rose’s band, Kitty Section, on the Couffaine houseboat. Fang had been off doing his sidekick duties for Jagged Stone – which apparently mostly involved making special effects with his shadow powers. So he hadn’t been around to help out when Juleka’s mother had been akumatized into Captain Hardrock.

He must have been feeling very useless indeed.

Sure enough, the trapdoor was slammed open rather more forcefully than usual. Fang clambered out onto the balcony looking almost as murderous as he had done back in the days when he was new to Paris.

“Hi Marinette, what did you want?”

At least he didn’t sound as annoyed as he looked. That was good! Marinette knew that she was one of the few people in this city really capable of cheering him up, and so she had better try her best!

Holding up her newest design, she gave him a sunny smile. “Here! Try it on!”

The murderous look disappeared from his face. “What’s that?”

“The jacket I said I’d make you! I know it has sleeves, but come on, it’s like 13°C now, you need sleeves…”

“Wait, you made this for me?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

“Of course! I said I would, didn’t I?”

“I know, I just…I thought you’d buy it or get Penny to order someone to make it or something.”

“No way! I wanted to make this for you myself.”

“Oh… um, thanks…” He took it from her hands and tried it on, thankfully tossing his old jacket to the ground as he did so. “Well, how does it look?”

Aware that her face was probably going crimson right now, Marinette coughed and turned slightly aside to hide behind her hair. “Good! It – it looks v-very good! Nice!”

“Think it would look better like this?” Fang asked, taking it off again and tying it round his waist.

Marinette nodded. “Yes! Yes that looks good too! Uh… I mean, like, the normal level of good… um…”

Oh come on, not the stuttering! Not now! It had been bad enough with Adrien, she was _not_ letting it happen with Fang too, no matter what. Gulping down all her nerves, she forced herself to say something sensible.

“I hope I got the measurements right. I had to ask Penny. I mean, I could have done it myself, but…”

Nope, that was not sensible. The thought of actually getting up close and measuring his arms was threatening to turn her into an idiot again, so she quickly shut up.

“It fits fine,” he said. “Not that I’ll wear it properly anyway when I can just do this. But… thank you Marinette. It’s really nice.”

“You’re welcome! I hope it cheered you up!”

“Hah, you always cheer me up…” A second later he seemed to have realized just how affectionate that sounded, and he crossed his arms and looked away. “But I’m totally still in a bad mood! Yeah.”

“Still upset about Captain Hardrock?” she asked, unable to hold back a giggle.

“Yes. And I didn’t even get to see Kitty Section performing, even though everyone else did.”

“You wanted to see them?”

“Well not because they’re my classmates or anything! It’s just… their music sounds kind of alright.”

Yeah, right. He loved their music and did in fact appreciate his classmates, and everyone knew it. “Not all of them are our classmates. Juleka’s brother is in the band too.”

“Ah yes, Lukewarm Coffee.”

Marinette burst into laughter. “Lukewarm Coffee! Oh, I so have to tell Juleka that one…”

“Save your breath, I already told her that myself when Rose once brought him up.”

It was strange to think of Fang speaking to people like Juleka and Rose, but then again, they did sit on the same row and were forced into group activities sometimes during class. Sometimes Marinette genuinely forgot that he did indeed have a life outside of her.

“I met Luka today for the first time actually,” she said. “Juleka’s whole family is so unique – her mother is a hippie, she’s a goth, and Luka is… well, kind of emo, I think? Rose wasn’t lying when she said he’s pretty cute-looking. Juleka told me he’s bi, just like me. And actually… he was playing the guitar at me today, all suave, I think he was trying to hit on me…”

Surely that must have been what was going on. Sitting there, having some cutie making eyes at her while playing her a soft guitar tune, throwing out the occasional words of praise… Luka hadn’t left it very ambiguous. Poor guy! Hopefully he had other friends to be wooing, ones who actually felt the same way back. He seemed nice enough, but Marinette’s own heart was already a little taken right now…

“Wait, he was flirting with you?!” Fang said.

“Yeah, I think so?”

“Well – well how is he any better than ME???”

For several seconds Marinette just stared in surprise. Was this some kind of weird, jealousy-fuelled confession of love? Because on the one hand she didn’t want it to be like that! But on the other hand, Fang’s pettiness was just plain _entertaining_. The only way to find out was by asking.

“Are you jealous?”

“No, not like that!” he scoffed. “It’s just… he literally just sounds like a clone of me! From all the things you just said!”

“How is Luka in any way like you?”

“I’m emo too, aren’t I? And cute-looking? And bi, for your information. And – and as for playing the guitar, just you wait, hang on a few minutes… _Shadow dragon!”_

Marinette almost had a heart attack on seeing the dragon suddenly materialize on her balcony from thin air. Fang leapt onto it and flew away, presumably giving several Parisians down on the road below heart attacks too.

What on earth was he up to now?!

She would have asked Tikki, but the little kwami was down in Marinette’s room munching on cookies and keeping the hamster company. Anyway, she would find out soon enough. She just rested her arms on the balcony railing, her brain in limbo.

Fang returned shortly. He jumped down from the dragon with a very familiar-looking guitar in his hands.

“Hey, isn’t that Jagged Stone’s gui–”

“Shush!” He retracted the shadow dragon before sitting on the railing with the guitar. “Just be quiet and listen!”

Marinette watched him. Surely he wasn’t going to…?

He did. He strummed the guitar gently, and began singing something in another language.

Her breath caught in her throat. His voice had always had a smooth, pleasant quality to it, but hearing him _sing_ now… singing to her…

It sent her mind reeling. Could a simple little guitar song really have such an effect on her? Well, apparently it did. Her thoughts were clouding up, overcome by such immense fondness, her heart swelling, her veins filling up with sugar and honey and everything sweet as she could do nothing but listen, as cheesy as it was…

Wait, that wasn’t just any language he was singing in. It was Mandarin!

If there were hearts in her eyes right now, she wouldn’t have been surprised. That was it. No denying it now. She was c _ompletely_ smitten.

And she didn’t even mind.

The song was far too short. She wanted it to go on and on, she could have listened to him singing to her for hours! Was she visibly swooning? Oh, she hoped not, that would be embarrassing…

“See?” he said, out of serenade mode and back to normal now.

How to even respond to something like that? Her brain was still fogged up, too stupidly dizzy and starstruck to make much sense of anything. Even just catching her breath was a feat – _wow_ , she had not realized being treated to a private concert by him would hit her so strongly.

Then she remembered why he was giving her this private concert in the first place.

She cleared her throat. “…Are you flirting?”

His face went bright red. “I’m just – I’m just proving that I’m better than everyone else who’s flirting with you! Chat Noir and Luka and I don’t know, probably Kagami too – all those people! I’m proving to you that I’m better than any of them!”

How typical of him! As stupid as he was being right now, as petty and ridiculous and annoying – it was so freaking _cute_. The fact that he was trying so hard to impress her at all was cute. And it had worked…

Marinette just laughed. “You don’t need to prove yourself! And anyway, you’re very different from all of them. For starters, none of them are tsundere.”

“Hey, since when am I one?”

“Hmm, let’s see. How much do you adore me?”

Blushing again, he pointedly glared at the ground. “…a little bit, maybe…”

“See? You are one!”

“Hmph, whatever.” He rolled his eyes. “Anyway, as we have just established, I am way better, cooler and more popular than any of the rest of your admirers, and I will continue to prove it for as long as I have to. Thank you for the jacket. Now goodnight Marinette.”

He gave her a peck on the cheek and then strode past her to the trapdoor, making his exit the normal and undramatic way.

Alright. That had just… happened?

Marinette blushed into her hands, unable to get a dumb grin off her face. He liked her! He did, right? Why else did he go get a guitar and serenade her the second she had mentioned the possibility of anyone else making a move on her?

Oh, he had left his old jacket here…

She went and picked it up. This thing was ridiculous! Of course Fang had still managed to look fantastic with it, but that was more due to Fang being Fang than this jacket being anything but terrible.

All the same, Marinette held it close in her arms as she descended back into her bedroom. It was still kind of warm… or maybe Marinette herself was just too warm? The ridiculous amount of blushing she had done this evening was sure keeping her comfortable despite the cool evening air.

“What was that all about?” Tikki asked, zooming over to her.

Marinette flopped down on her bed, finally allowing herself to swoon with reckless abandon. “Tikkiiiiii! He serenaded me! In Mandarin!”

“That’s so exciting! Wait until your parents find out!”

“They’ll tell me to propose to him on the spot…”

“Did he like the jacket you made?”

“He did.” She curled up around the old one, resting her face in it for a few seconds before wondering if that was a bit creepy, and hurriedly pushing it off the bed. “Tikki, is this… is this good? Am I just an idiot for falling for a petty annoying alien brat?”

Tikki gave her a pat on the head. “He’s a very cool alien brat, you’re good!”

Cool alien brat indeed.

Marinette just turned over and buried her face in the pillow, thoughts of the cool alien brat overwhelming her.

-

Back at the hotel, Fang had only just arrived when Jagged grabbed the guitar off him.

“Hey sidekick! Thanks for getting this back in one piece. What did you need it for, anyway?”

Fang was at a loss for words. Was he honestly supposed to just tell Jagged what he had been up to?!

Jagged raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh, I see that blush. Were you trying to impress someone with your sick guitar skills, eh?”

“It was just Marinette,” he said quickly.

“Ah right, ‘just’ Marinette. I see she made you a new jacket. It looks great! Much more in sync with my style. Tell her thanks from me the next time you see her, okay?”

Fang nodded, then quickly headed off to his room. Right now he didn’t have the energy for talking to people.

As soon as he was inside he sank to the floor. He had told his friends he wouldn’t serenade Marinette, and now look what he had done? Serenaded Marinette! What was wrong with him?!

Well the truth was, he had barely been thinking right – she had made that jacket for him, and was just being so sweet and wonderful, and then it had only just hit him that if he didn’t end up with her then _someone else would first_ , because Marinette was freaking _popular_ –

Why did she have to be popular?! It was the one thing that ruined everything! He just couldn’t get over it!

But he couldn’t get over her, either. That was why, despite knowing he shouldn’t, he had gone and got that guitar, and sang to her, and barely even managed to avoid telling her that he was doing it because he loved her, and not just because he had something to prove, or that he hated the others, or any of that…

And she had liked it. Oh god, she had liked the serenade. A lot.

And that only made him want to do it again!

But he couldn’t keep doing that, could he? It was far too romantic. He’d probably already crossed the line as it was – there was no way she wouldn’t have realized it at this point. The only problem was, singing to her clearly made her happy, and he already knew how much he wanted to make her happy…

Even now, the answer was clear. He would definitely end up doing that again. He just knew it. Because slowly, bit by bit, his feelings for Marinette were winning out against everything else that steered him away from her.

And judging from her reaction tonight, she definitely seemed to feel the same way.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not too far away from the end of the fic now, as it'll probably finish not too far into the events of season 3 (sadly no Desperada or Party Crasher then, but I can only drag this fic out for so long!). Let's just say that this fic does have a "villain", and a somewhat... unexpected one. You'll see.
> 
> Anyway, I had been completely neglecting the sibling angst, but a certain akuma in this chapter will be excellent for providing some :)

For once, it was Marinette’s turn to be in a bad mood. That damn Chat Noir! She had already told him she wasn’t into him like that, why was he being weirdly pushy about it? The rose was a nice gesture, yes, but it couldn’t change her mind. This time she had flat-out told him that she was interested in someone else.

Hopefully he would move on for real this time…

Walking into school, Marinette sighed and hoped the rest of her day would go much better. Maybe Fang would serenade her again later! He had done it twice since the last time, claiming he was “practising his guitar skills in a non-judgmental environment”. Yeah, right! Marinette knew perfectly well that he was doing it because she liked it. And that made her feel very warm inside indeed.

Lost in thoughts of Fang, Marinette didn’t notice where she was headed until she accidentally walked smack into Adrien.

“Marinette!” Adrien immediately grabbed her by the arm, a massive smile on his face. “Perfect timing! I really need some advice with something, can we talk?”

That would be great! Now that she and Adrien were friends, he would definitely be able to get her mind off things that she probably should stop thinking about so much.

“Sure!” she replied.

“Great!”

He led her over to one of the benches on the side of the courtyard and they sat down together.

“Okay, um, this is a bit stupid,” he said, lowering his voice and grinning sheepishly. “It’s uh… about this girl…”

Ooh, Adrien liked someone? That was exciting! Maybe he was asking Marinette for help!

“We have fencing classes together,” he continued. “That’s how I became friends with her. And now I um… feel kind of differently about her… I don’t know how that happened! Has it ever happened to you?”

Marinette glanced across the courtyard, where a certain alien stood in his emo corner, listening to his tunes. “Yeah…”

Adrien followed her gaze. “Ah, of course you have!”

“W-what?” She shook herself out of her dreamy gaze and turned back to him. “I was just… Carry on! What were you saying? Who’s this cute girl you like?”

“Oh! Well…” His face was slowly going red. “It’s Kagami. You know her, right?”

Marinette nodded eagerly. “Of course I know her! That’s awesome, Adrien! You have to ask her out!”

“Where should I take her? The zoo?”

“No, don’t take her there, the zoo is cursed. You should take her… hmm…” She paused to think for a second – while she didn’t know Kagami well, she had met her a few times. Even fought against her akumatized form once. “People call her the ice queen, right? Take her ice skating!”

“What, alone?” He was really blushing now. “I can’t be alone with her there!”

“I’ll help you! I’ll be there too, hiding, we can talk via bluetooth–”

“But you said the zoo was cursed!”

“The _zoo_ is cursed, the _bluetooth_ is not. How else am I meant to give you real-time advice?”

Adrien did not look completely convinced at that, but he smiled at her anyway. “Thanks, Marinette. I guess I’ll give it a try.”

“You can do it!”

“I hope so. I’ll ask her, and I’ll let you know when to meet me at the ice rink.” He stood up and waved at her before walking away. “See you later!”

She waved back, her heart lighter than it had ever been. Who knew helping Adrien sort out his own love life would make her feel so much better about everything? Imagine going back in time several months ago and telling her past self that she’d end up trying to set up Adrien with another girl! Back then, it had been unthinkable. How times had changed!

Would Adrien help her out in return? He was certainly willing to. As for whether or not Marinette wanted him to help, well…

Maybe she could do it herself. Yeah! It wouldn’t be that hard to tell Fang that she liked him, right? The two of them were very close. And there was a high chance he had already guessed it. After all, she wasn’t exactly… _subtle_. The fact that Adrien hadn’t noticed back in the day was a fluke – that boy was extraordinarily oblivious. Fang was decidedly NOT oblivious.

On the other hand, he was an extreme expert at being in denial…

It had taken long enough just to make friends with him, and even longer to get him to actually admit to it. Trying to make a move too fast would most likely be a bad idea, knowing what he was like.

No, for now it was better to forget about it. Go help out Adrien for a while. Distract herself.

That was right! For now, she had to focus on the bluetooth plan.

-

It failed almost instantly.

“Is that a bluetooth in your ear?” Kagami asked, barely having even got onto the ice itself.

Adrien just stammered something in reply. The next second, Kagami had cast her eyes over the mostly empty spectator seats and spotted Marinette hiding behind the chairs in the last row.

“Marinette’s over there too. Let me guess – were you so nervous about being alone with me that you asked her to help you?”

“Uhh…”

Alright, this had failed. Apparently Kagami was too perceptive for a plan like this to work.

“Sorry Adrien!” Marinette whispered into the bluetooth, creeping towards the exit of the ice rink as quick as she could. “You’re on your own now, good luck though! Have fun!”

Reaching the door, she headed through and sprinted out. Through the bluetooth she heard Kagami reassuring Adrien.

“Don’t worry, I think it’s cute that you did that…”

Phew! Too far away for the signal to hold now, at least it seemed that Kagami hadn’t minded. Maybe Adrien’s date with her would go alright. And to be quite honest, perhaps he was better off without Marinette’s help…

Yeah. They would be fine. Perfectly fine! Kagami was a very smart young woman, Adrien was a cutie, it would be great.

Marinette left the ice rink and began walking down the street, stuffing the bluetooth back into her pocket as she did so. Lucky Adrien! Things seemed to be working out for him very well. Hopefully Marinette’s own future would be the same way…

She rounded a corner only to see–

“MARINETTE, THERE YOU ARE! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!”

Fang’s voice gave her a heart attack – not least because he usually was in a much better mood than this when talking to her. Seriously, what was he grumpy about now?! Had he really been planning on storming into the ice rink during the middle of her mission, just to complain at her about something?

“What’s my fault?” she asked.

He came to a stop in front of her. “People have been coming up to me asking for YOUR autograph! Not mine! Because somehow, even as Marinette Dupain-Cheng, you’re more popular than I am!”

This again? She rolled her eyes. “Well maybe you’d be more popular if you’d broken your truce and actually helped me when Chloé’s family got akumatized last week…”

“I’m not breaking that truce, do you think I want Chloé yelling at me all the time like she does with all of you? Anyway, this isn’t about hero stuff! The problem is that you’re popular as _Marinette_ , ever since you designed that official Jagged Stone merch. Seriously, people have been asking me for my autograph and saying it’s because I’m ‘Marinette’s boyfriend’, not because I’m ME!”

Wait, what? People thought he was her boyfriend???

And… and he technically hadn’t denied it…

About to have another heart attack, she was distracted by the sound of crackling from further up the street. She turned around to see a mass of ice surging up the street, freezing and crunching everything in its path.

“Okay, who did you get akumatized at that ice rink?” Fang asked, completely deadpan.

It was true that this was most likely the work of a new akuma villain – who could it have been? Oh, surely not Adrien? Just because she’d abandoned him there alone with Kagami!

Marinette pulled an ice powerup macaron out of her pocket and opened her bag to hand it to Tikki. “Tikki, power up! We’re gonna need ice powers.”

As she transformed into her Ladybug ice form, she overheard Fang muttering something about how his old friend’s ice powers were “way cooler”, much like he had done with the water powers. It was so annoying when he was in this kind of mood! This grumbling, complaining kind of mood, and Marinette knew that she would be able to get rid of it if she could just spend a minute or so properly speaking to him, but she didn’t have the time right now!

Her Ladybug transformation ended just in time, as the sheet of ice had almost made its way right up to them. She scooped Fang off his feet to keep him safe from the oncoming ice and leapt up onto the nearest building, the blades on her feet allowing her to land gracefully despite the roof being covered in ice now too.

Putting him down, she noticed that he was staring at her rather… surprised? Starstruck? She had never just picked him up like that before, as if he was an ordinary Paris civilian who needed rescuing. Usually she didn’t need to.

“You stay here and try to keep warm,” she said, trying to force her brain back into serious, Ladybug mode. “And don’t slip over and hurt yourself or anything, okay? I’ll be back to check on you once the battle’s over.”

He had already started shivering. “C-c-can’t I help?”

“You don’t have ice powerups, you’re freezing here! Does your shadow dragon’s fire melt ice? Because if so then you could start doing that. Otherwise just make a bunch of hamsters or something, whatever you do, just stay warm!”

Wracking her brains, she tried to think of what else he could do to keep himself warm while Paris was rapidly turning into a frozen hellscape, but all that was coming to mind was – well… well yes, kissing would probably keep him warm… but she couldn’t do that! And she _shouldn’t_ do that. And she should definitely stop thinking about that.

“See you later!” she said, and hastily left the roof before he could catch her blushing.

Right, now to go to the ice rink, where the villain might be…

Halfway there, she met up with Chat Noir – thankfully he looked in a much better mood than he had been the last time they had spoken.

“Ladybug!” He skated over to her at top speed. “Hey! About that rose thing, don’t worry about it anymore! You were right about moving on. I’m over it now, I swear. I’m trying things out with someone else now and I think she really does like me, so…”

“Oh! Uh, right!”

That had been a lot of words spoken in a very short amount of time. It seemed like he was a little too lovey-dovey to slow his brain down. And it was adorable! How sweet to see Chat so happy, and over someone else for once! It was refreshing.

“I’m happy for you,” she said. “But you won’t stop calling me ‘my lady’, will you?”

“Of course not, my lady!”

Phew. She never wanted things to change between them. They were a team, and the fact that they were a platonic team from both sides did nothing to affect that. They would always be teammates. Best friends.

-

The akuma villain, thank goodness, was not Adrien. Frozer was instead a figure skater upset that the rink was hardly seeing any customers, and the mayor had threatened to shut it down. Trust it to be a Bourgeois who caused one of the most destructive akumas in Paris!

At least it was over now. Chat Noir being in such a good mood had really given them an edge, and even this ice champion villain was no match for them. He had been safely de-akumatized and Paris was returned to its normal state.

As soon as Marinette had detransformed she ran back to check on Fang. Ah there he was, it looked like he had made his way down from the roof back to street level, and–

“You’re wearing the jacket!” she exclaimed, restraining herself from just glomping him on the spot. “You’re properly wearing the jacket I made you!”

He tried his best to still look grumpy. “Well it was really cold, so…”

Hah, he loved it really. She knew it. It was obvious.

“It’s not cold anymore,” she said, “so uh… I guess you can go back to not wearing it…”

Before she could think about what she was doing, she reached forwards to slide the thing off his arms and take it off him, then tied it around his shoulders.

“There, now it’s like a superhero cape! Maybe now you’d get more popular for being a superhero, hehe.”

That managed to make him smile a little. “How does it look?”

She took a step back and had a look for a few seconds.

_Nope._

“Okay no, it kind of looks stupid like that,” she admitted. “Just tie it round your waist again.”

“Alright then, Miss Popularity Fashion Queen…”

Popularity again! If there was one thing that genuinely annoyed her about him, it was his irrational obsession with popularity!

But then again, she knew his backstory. He had told her it. Growing up with a brother like _that_ , always in the shadow of everyone, even now his friends being so powerful and more well-known than him, no matter what he achieved, no matter how much he tried… Was it any wonder he had turned out like this?

“Listen,” she said. “My popularity from the Jagged Stone merch thing will die down in a while, so don’t worry about it! And the more you help during akuma attacks, the more your own popularity will stay up! I know it wasn’t possible for you to help this time, but next time it’ll happen, I’m sure!”

He looked at the ground, scratching the back of his neck nervously. “Thank you for trying to make me feel better…”

Of course! She always wanted him to feel better. Especially because she knew that she _could_. He always was so much more cheerful around her, and she wouldn’t give that up for anything. The longer she could stay with him, the happier he would end up.

Well, in that case…

“Um, you want to go to the zoo?” she asked.

“What, now?”

“Yeah, why not? Since Adrien doesn’t need my help right now, I may as well spend this time with you instead!”

His smile was a lot bigger now. “Sure.”

Perfect! Ignoring all nerves, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her. Sure, he was wearing those fingerless gloves like he always did, so it didn’t fully count, but still – holding hands with him was really pretty nice…

And this zoo outing, did it count as a date? Who even knew. Marinette didn’t want to scare him off by asking, so she kept quiet. It didn’t matter anyway. As long as he was happy, that was the important thing. And he was!

-

Homework was so annoying. It was late at night, and Fang was sat in his room just trying to get it all finished. But it was so boring! Far too easy to get distracted by daydreaming about soft kisses with Marinette on her balcony, yes, that would be so much nicer than doing this stupid homework…

The door slammed open behind him, followed by a voice that gave him an unwelcome chill.

“Just what do you think you’re doing there?!”

He whipped round to see none other than Captain Kaizo – what the heck was _he_ doing here?! And why did he sound so cold, so sinister, more than he usually did?

Fang hastily leapt to his feet and saluted. “Captain! W-what are you doing here?”

Kaizo strode up to him, glaring down at him with an ice cold fury. “You’re a disgrace, I’m ashamed to be related to you, and you don’t deserve to be popular in this city. I’m going to ruin everything.”

Right. Fang was probably dreaming. After all, Kaizo wasn’t usually this unnecessarily mean! The homework had probably been boring enough that Fang had just fallen asleep at his desk.

He gave himself a pinch, but to his horror, he was wide awake. This was actually happening, apparently.

Without warning, Kaizo whipped out his energy sword and hit Fang hard enough to slam him through the wall and out onto the street below.

_Ouch._

The pain hit him like a truck. Akuma battles were never usually painful, as the villains were hardly ever as violent as many that Fang had fought up in space, and definitely not as violent as Captain Kaizo. But oh, now he remembered – being slammed through a wall _really freaking hurt!_

And why was Kaizo even doing this to him?! This was so unfair! Without any warning, too! What had Fang done wrong this time?

Kaizo leapt out of the hole in the wall and landed in front of Fang, who was still reeling from the shock and hadn’t quite managed to get to his feet. Now he had a nasty smile on his face.

“I’ll humiliate you in front of the entire city, just watch! No one will ever praise you again. You’ll be the most unpopular person to have ever lived. But first things first, I have to go find your girlfriend…”

Just hearing those words, Fang immediately forgot about how mad he was on his own behalf. “Wait, how do you know about Marinette? What are you going to do to her?!”

Kaizo’s grin was downright deranged – Fang wasn’t even sure he had ever seen him quite this… evil. “Oh, nothing. I just think my poor future sister-in-law is far too good for you, and I’m going to tell her so by informing her of every embarrassing thing about you that I can think of, so that she’ll never care about you again.”

With that, he gave his energy sword another swing and smacked Fang straight into the nearest wall, then laughed and walked off.

Too battered to move for the moment, Fang just watched in despair – how could this be happening? This was a real nightmare!

Then he noticed. He wasn’t the only one around right now suffering immensely – there was some random Parisian over there being chased by what looked like a giant tarantula, another one being chased by some kind of zombie, plenty of people running around screaming while various horrors stalked them.

Up in the air was what was unmistakeably an akuma villain, all dressed in dark blue and floating on a pillow while dropping dust over the city below and singing a creepy chant.

_“The Sandboy’s checking in, now nightmares can begin…”_

Oh! It was just an akuma attack!

From the looks of it, this akuma villain – Sandboy – was causing everyone’s nightmares to come to life. In that case, this wasn’t the real Kaizo after all! It really was a nightmare!

Fang let out a sigh of relief. He knew his brother could be pretty cruel sometimes, but even he wouldn’t just storm in here and threaten to wreck Fang’s life like that without prior warning. No, the guy who had attacked him just now was only a nightmare.

A nightmare who was on the hunt for Marinette… oh jeez.

Extricating himself from the debris of the half-broken wall, Fang pulled out his phone and called her up as quick as possible. She picked up almost instantly.

“Fang!!! There’s an akuma attack, your old jacket is trying to kill me! And it can speak!”

Aww, she had kept his old jacket, that was so sweet…

No! This wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. Time to think about the situation at hand. A nightmare about his jacket coming to life and attacking Marinette, which was the most ridiculous thing he had heard in a long time.

“What kind of nightmare is that?!” he scoffed. “I just got attacked by an evil nightmare version of my brother! He threw me through a wall!”

“Now is not the time to be bragging about how much cooler your nightmare is, okay?! We need to stop this!” On the other end it sounded like she was trying to hit something – maybe fighting off the nightmare jacket with a pillow or something.

“I’m calling to warn you actually,” he said. “The nightmare Kaizo is hunting you down, he’s already on his way to your bakery, and uhh… if he does find you, don’t listen to anything he tells you, okay? Just turn into Ladybug and sort this out!”

“I um… I can’t actually transform right now!” She sounded frantic. “It’s a long story but meet me at Fu’s place, okay? I’ll try and avoid your brother! See you there soon!”

She hung up without waiting. What had she been talking about? Why couldn’t she transform?

Being exhausted from a long day of schoolwork and homework, and now the lingering pain of having been tossed around like a ragdoll by the nightmare incarnation of one of the strongest people in the universe, Fang did not want to do anything but go back inside and go straight to sleep.

But Marinette had told him to meet her at Fu’s place, and while she was perfectly capable of handling akuma attacks without him, she clearly wanted him there with her. Especially considering she couldn’t transform into Ladybug right now.

Fang brushed himself off and headed off, very much hoping he wouldn’t come across the nightmare Kaizo along the way, and hoping even more that Marinette did not come across him either.

-

As soon as he got there, Marinette was just arriving herself, already in her pyjamas and seemingly half asleep. She pulled Fang inside and closed the door.

“Fang! I can’t transform because Tikki is inside the Miracle Box right now! So is Plagg!”

She was whispering, since Master Fu was asleep on the floor with a book over his face. Running over to the gramophone that hid the Miracle Box, she whispered into it.

“Tikki! Tikki, can you hear me?”

“Why is Tikki even in there?” Fang asked. “And where’s Wayzz?”

“Wayzz was meant to be guarding! But I guess he must be inside too… it’s Nooroo’s birthday today so the kwamis have some kind of ritual to try and contact him, but we didn’t tell Fu about this because he always says that a kwami should never part from their owner… And he was right! Now there’s an akuma attack and I can’t even transform!”

None of that made even a remote amount of sense to Fang – maybe he should concentrate more whenever Marinette and Fu were having these discussions about magic jewellery and tiny flying gods.

Marinette had now knelt down beside Fu and was gently shaking him. “Master! Master, wake up!”

Fu opened his eyes. “Marinette? What’s going on?”

At that moment a cascade of dust fell through the ceiling, and that eerie voice began chanting.

_“The Sandboy’s checking in, now nightmares can begin…”_

Grabbing Fu’s arm, Marinette pulled him to his feet. “Master, we have to get out of here! There’s an akuma attack and–”

Before they could even reach the door, several very cartoonish-looking ghosts had appeared in mid-air, and started berating Fu about what sounded like… well, Fang had no idea what they were on about, but it didn’t sound pleasant. Evidently that was what Fu’s nightmare was – he ran into the corner of the room to hide behind a chair in fear.

“Marinette! Transform!”

Marinette had grabbed a pillow and started swiping the ghosts away. “Sorry Master, I can’t! Tikki is in the Miracle Box–”

At that moment the door was knocked clean off its hinges. There stood the nightmare version of Captain Kaizo, now with spatters of red strawberry jam staining his coat. How many pastries must he have murdered along the way for that?!

“There you are Marinette!” he said, kicking aside the remains of the door and entering the room. “Oh, and Fang’s here too. Excellent.”

Just seeing this nightmare was zapping all Fang’s resolve, but Marinette couldn’t transform right now – if he was the only one who still had powers at this moment then he had to do what he could to protect her. Even if he knew he was no match for normal Kaizo, let alone a superpowered nightmare version who specifically had it out for him.

“Don’t you dare hurt Marinette!” he said, stepping in front of her with his arm out.

Nightmare Kaizo chuckled. “Oh don’t worry, I’m not going to harm her. I was just going to tell her all about how insecure and whiny and petty you are, and how you don’t think you’re good enough for her, and it’s because it’s true. She’ll never really love you, no matter how much you keep daydreaming that she will and wishing she would just kiss you already–”

His monologue was thankfully interrupted by Marinette chucking the pillow she was holding directly at his face. Nice to know that she still had her Ladybug reflexes, even as a civilian!

But to Fang’s horror, nightmare Kaizo just pulled out his sword again. “Excuse me? Do you puny weaklings really think you’re any match for ME? Fang, you’ve become soft like the rest of these Parisians. I knew you would, because you’re _weak_ , just like your little girlfriend.”

Ugh – why would he call Marinette his girlfriend _right in front of her???_

“Marinette is not weak!” Fang snapped, hoping Marinette would just forget about that last part. And everything else.

“Well fine, she’s not. But _you_ definitely are, and I’ll prove it to this city so no one will ever be a fan of you anymore!”

A snap second later, Kaizo had grabbed Fang by the arm and tossed him through the window to land outside again.

Oh, this whole thing was just mortifying. A window was better than a wall, sure, but it still hurt! And what hurt even more was having to hear everything the nightmare was saying, and knowing that Marinette had heard it too…

But at least he was out on the street now, out of her earshot. Time to fight back.

_“Shadow tiger!”_

His tiger had barely been summoned for a few seconds before Kaizo showed up and promptly killed it. “Hah! You think you’re a hero? Get up and fight me, and prove to me whether you’re worthy of your hero status or not!”

“Well first of all you’re just a nightmare, you’re not even real. And second of all I’m SUPER TIRED! I was about to go to sleep when you showed up! This is so unfair!”

“I may be a nightmare, but the pain and humiliation you feel is all too real.” Kaizo smirked and sent him flying halfway down the street with another sword attack. “See? Hurts doesn’t it? And it hurts you even more that no one in this city really cares about you, and no one back in Malaysia cares about you either, they replaced you with a crocodile, and whose fault was that? Mine! Hah!”

Part of it was true. Hearing his frequent inner thoughts actually spoken aloud like this, in Kaizo’s voice, was horrendously painful. Much more than the pain of having been chucked across the street again, scraping across the tarmac and probably getting scratches on his new jacket.

Those thoughts, of not being adequate enough or not ever being able to believe that anyone cared about him when he was never the most popular, he didn’t need to hear it said out loud on the street, where plenty of other people could probably hear it too! It was loud enough in his own head!

“Need a hand, Fang?”

He turned to see that Ladybug had popped up onto a nearby roof and was staring in concern. Oh good – she must have managed to get Tikki back somehow! That was good news.

“You go defeat Sandboy, don’t worry about me!” he called. “I’ll handle this, just go cut the problem off at its source.”

“Okay, but take care!” She blew him a kiss and left.

Okay, hopefully not too many people were around to see that, and especially not to see how it made him blush, even though now was most definitely not the time for it…

At least it gave him the resolve he needed. Getting to his feet, he looked the nightmare Kaizo right in the eye. “You’re wrong, my old friends do care about me. And I know for certain there’s at least one person in this city who will always care.”

Kaizo was shaking his head in what could almost be pity. “You really think Marinette cares about you?”

“Of course she does! _Shadow dragon fusion!”_

It had been a long, long time since he had last used the second tier version of his powers. He hadn’t done it even once since arriving in Paris. The need had just never been there.

But to be able to hold his own against the likes of this twisted version of Captain Kaizo, he needed something far stronger than usual. Second tier powers it was. Even though using these powers tired him out so much, and he was already tired…

Fusing with his shadow dragon form, he flew up into the air to avoid Kaizo’s next sword attack. At least he was a lot more mobile like this, with long shadow wings extending off his arms and a dragon tail for balance. Kaizo tried to hit him again, and Fang dodged once more and tried to hit him with a spurt of dragon fire. Obviously Kaizo was nimble enough that it missed.

As difficult as the ensuing battle was, it was definitely more even this way than it had been before. Fang knew he still wasn’t a match for Kaizo head-on, but all he had to do was hold out long enough for Marinette to de-akumatize Sandboy, and then everything would be okay.

There was a flashing light on a rooftop nearby. What was that? Fang flew towards it and hoped it wasn’t some kind of trap.

No, it was no trap! That was Ladybug there on the roof, using her Lucky Charm item, which looked like some kind of LED light that she was rapidly firing on and off to get his attention. Sandboy was just nearby, aiming a shot of sand dust directly at her.

The next second she shone the light directly into Sandboy’s eyes. He flew out to the side to get away from it–

Only to fly almost directly into Kaizo, who was rapidly approaching. The tip of Kaizo’s sword sliced right through the pillow and the akuma fluttered out of it along with a mountain of dream dust.

Thank goodness! It was over! Fang landed on the ground and retracted his powers, completely exhausted now. Up on the roof Ladybug was doing her healing thing, purifying the akuma, the nightmares all vanished, and the poor little kid who had been akumatized was caught by Chat Noir who lowered him safely to the ground…

Phew. That had been the worst akuma attack yet, and for many reasons. Not least because hearing Kaizo saying all of that was like a knife to the gut.

But he was gone. The evil, cruel, nightmare version of Kaizo was gone. And while the normal Kaizo wasn’t exactly an angel, at least he was a lot better than that.

Ladybug landed right beside Fang. “Wow, that was amazing! I’ve never seen you use your powers like that before!”

He shrugged. “Yeah well… well Paris is too lame to even need it most of the time, so…”

The de-akumatized little kid caught his eye. A tiny young child, barely even 8 years old probably, but with features that looked incredibly inhuman…

“Wait, why do you look like me?” Fang said, turning away from Ladybug and going over to the kid. Slightly off-coloured hair, spiky style, what even looked like eyeliner despite the fact that this was practically an infant. He just looked… alien.

The kid jumped and stared at him in awe. “FANG! I finally get to meet you!!!” The next second, he had run at Fang and clung onto him like an annoying little koala. “I’ve been a fan of you for years! My cousin, she lives in Malaysia, she told me all about your adventures, I wanted to be as much like you as I can! I’m a human but I tried my best! It made me so happy when you moved here to Paris, I wanted to join your Fangclub but the mean man who runs it said I’m not old enough…”

This little kid… stanned him??? And that was why he made himself look like an alien???

On the one hand, that was great! More popularity! But on the other hand, having this little kid sticking to him like a limpet was incredibly annoying.

Ladybug went and gently prised the kid off him, picking him up. “Hey big boy, what happened to make you akumatized?”

“I was watching a scary movie, and then when I went to sleep I got a really bad nightmare! Then there was a creepy butterfly in my room and this weird man talking in my head…”

Chat Noir came over and gave the kid a ruffle on the head. “Careful what you watch on TV before going to sleep next time! I gotta run before I detransform – Ladybug, do you mind taking this kid back home?”

“Sure,” she said.

“Cool! See you guys later!” He gave them a grin and made his exit.

Ladybug immediately turned to Fang. “Are you okay though? That battle looked really rough…”

“I’m fine, I swear,” he insisted. “But just… uh, if you see Marinette Dupain-Cheng, then tell her to ignore everything nightmare Kaizo said, okay?”

“Of course.” She gave him a wink, then walked off to take the little kid home.

Fang just tried not to spontaneously combust. Ugh, she wasn’t going to ignore it, was she? She wouldn’t forget about it. How embarrassing, how crazily, stupidly embarrassing…

-

He had barely just got back into the hotel suite when Penny rushed over and wrapped him in a hug.

“Fang! I caught a glimpse of the nightmare attacking you earlier, it looked awful! Is that really how your brother treats you?”

“No, no, not at all!” he said quickly – poor Penny was always so stressed, there was no point worrying her any further. “He’s… well he used to be a bit like that, but never that bad. And he’s cooled down a lot these days. He’s okay, really, he is. He does have a heart. It just… absurdly well-hidden.”

Penny put her hands on his shoulders and gave him an encouraging smile, though he could see the worry in her eyes. “Well if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here for you.”

Now she was being motherly… Fang was surprised to find himself holding back a sob. Well, this certainly had been one hell of an evening. And it had been too long since he’d had a mother figure in his life…

“I’m fine,” he reassured her. “I just think I need some sleep.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Get some rest.”

He nodded, then walked into his room. It was true, he really did need sleep!

But first, he had to do something else. Otherwise he would never be able to sleep soundly.

Grabbing his phone, he scrolled through his contacts and called the one number he was never really supposed to call.

The reply from the other end was almost immediate.

“Fang, what do you want?!”

Oh, thank goodness! Hearing the real Kaizo was like music to his ears. Yes, Kaizo sounded annoyed, and still had that cold, commanding voice, but nothing like his nightmare self earlier. This was just regular old Kaizo, and Fang had never been so happy to hear his voice.

“Sorry to bother you Captain,” he said quickly. “I just wanted to ask you something.”

“Well hurry up and ask it! I’ve got work to be doing.”

“Captain, you… you wouldn’t try to humiliate me in front of all of Paris, would you?”

There was a pause of a few seconds before Kaizo answered, sounding slightly less cold than before. “No, of course not, why would I bother doing that? Plus, you probably do that yourself much more effectively on a daily basis.”

Of course it stung to hear Kaizo insult him. But it stung a lot less than everything the nightmare Kaizo had said. The mocking of normal Kaizo was something that Fang was already used to. It was more a really weird form of sibling affection than anything else.

“And also,” he continued, “um, well… there’s this girl called Marinette, and um…”

“I already know that. Sai and Shielda keep telling me about your emails, apparently she’s all you ever talk about.”

“Wait, Sai and Shielda read my emails???”

“Yes, apparently one of your friends sold it to them.”

Fang made a mental note to kill Gopal. “Well ANYWAY, Marinette isn’t my girlfriend or anything, but like… hypothetically, if she was… would you approve?”

“Hypothetically, I have better things to be doing with my life than telling my little brother who he can or cannot go out with. As long as she’s not evil, I don’t care.”

Phew, that was a relief! “Thank you Captain.”

“You’re welcome Fang, that’s what brothers are there for. Now don’t call me again.” He hung up.

Ah, typical Kaizo and his allergy to being nice. Fang smiled to himself – at least his brother was there for him, in his own way. His _real_ brother, that was. The nightmare Kaizo could go to hell.

And now for a good night’s rest!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, recycling ideas from season 2 of the original Boboiboy show back when Fang and his friends were tiny infants? It's more likely than you think!
> 
> Please do not yeet your phone/laptop/whatever-device-you're-reading-this-on out of the window at any point while reading this. Or flip tables. I almost did when I wrote this chapter... >:D

Marinette, having transformed into Ladybug, dragged herself up the stairs one by one and tried not to trip over her own yoyo string yet again.

This was the worst day _ever_.

All she had wanted was for Marc and Nath to make a comic book together! But due to some stupid misunderstanding Marc had got akumatized into Reverser, and had managed to hit both Ladybug and Chat Noir with a “reversion” spell before heading off to search for Nathaniel. Now Ladybug could barely walk two steps without tripping over her own feet and Chat Noir was an utter scaredy-cat.

They had made it to the school art room in one piece, at least. Hopefully Nath would be here and they could protect him from Reverser.

But even as she managed to pull herself up the last few steps, it was too late – the art teacher ran out of the art room throwing various bits of artwork onto the floor and laughing evilly.

“I HATE ART AND MUSIC! DESTROY IT ALL!”

Rose and Juleka followed him out, tossing pieces of paper up in the air in a completely uncharacteristic manner, and all three of them ran off in the opposite direction.

“We’re too late,” Ladybug said, her spirits sinking. “Reverser’s already been here…”

Was Nath even here? Had he been reversed too? Evidently he was not in the art room so the likelihood was that he had escaped somewhere else, but where?

There was a voice from down the stairs behind them.

“Ladybug!!! Chat Noir!!! I’m so happy to see you!!!”

She turned around to see Fang running up towards them, an unusually big smile on his face. That was weird – sure, he was always happy to see Marinette, but that was Marinette! Right now she was Ladybug! And of course he knew that, but even he knew better than to make it obvious in public.

Wait a second… did he have flowers in his hair???

“Isn’t it just such a beautiful day today?” He made it to the top of the stairs and pulled both of them into a hug. “I’ve missed you so much! It’s been a whole day since I last saw you!”

Chat pulled himself out of the hug and hid back inside his blanket, shivering. “Fang, what’s going on? Why are you being so happy? It’s scary!”

Marinette brushed the loose flower petals off herself and pushed Fang off her. “Don’t tell me you got reversed too!”

Fang was fluttering his lashes and giving them both the sort of sappy look he usually reserved for macarons, or for his fanclub page on the Ladyblog forums, or for Marinette sometimes when he thought she wasn’t looking. “Oh yes, that’s exactly what happened! That cutie Reverser, he threw one of those marvellous paper planes at me! Now I’m no longer grumpy. Instead I’m so very, very happy uwu!”

“Did you just say ‘uwu’ out loud?!”

“Yes! I have to express myself!” He started picking up some of the loose flower petals from the ground and putting them back into his hair.

“Where did you get those flowers from?” she asked him, trying not to laugh at how weird it was to see him like this. It wasn’t his fault he had been reversed, after all. Even if it was hilarious.

“From that adorable tiny friend Alix! She always carries around lovely flower petals to throw at people. I think I should do the same!”

Chat sneezed. “ACHOO! Please don’t, you’ll give people allergies!”

“Oh no! Then I’ll invent non-allergenic flower petals! Alix can help me, Nathaniel can too, he’s so emo and I aspire to be more like him…”

Hearing Nath’s name reminded Ladybug of why they were here. “Fang, do you know where Nathaniel is by any chance?”

He nodded. “At the Louvre with his best friend Alix! Oh, their friendship is so heartwarming! Isn’t it just so sweet?”

“Right, the Louvre, of course! We need to go there right away – Nathaniel is in danger!”

“What about Marinette?” Chat Noir asked.

The dreamy look in Fang’s eyes increased ten-fold. “Oh yes, Marinette… Isn’t she just the best? I should give some of these flowers to her, I’m sure she would love that… and she would look so wonderful with flowers in her hair…”

“No, I mean Marinette’s in danger too because Reverser wants revenge on her! Where is she?”

“Oh. I have no idea.”

Marinette herself was busy looking at the floor and trying not to give away how flustered she was. Knowing Fang liked her was one thing, but actually hearing him outright gush about her for once was completely another! On the bright side he seemed to be keeping her identity a secret, even in this state.

She cleared her throat. “Fang, why don’t you go look for Marinette while Chat Noir and I go to the Louvre to save Nathaniel?”

He pouted. “Aww, can’t I come to the Louvre with you? I love that place so much!”

“Since when? I thought you hated it!”

“Of course I don’t hate it! It’s so beautiful! Just like the Eiffel Tower!”

Okay yeah, he most definitely needed to be far, far away when she used her Lucky Charm and saved the day. Because there was no doubt that the second he returned to normal, he would be completely mortified at all the cheesy stuff he was saying right now. That was a temper tantrum she did _not_ want to have to deal with.

“Tell you what,” she said, failing to hide a grin. “You go find Marinette right now and keep her safe during this akuma attack, and then once it’s over, take her to the Louvre with you. I’m sure she’d be happy to go!”

“That sounds like a great idea! Thank you Ladybug!” He grabbed a handful of flower petals from his pocket and tossed them at her. “Good luck! Please save poor Nath, he doesn’t deserve to be hurt! And poor Marc too! And tell Alix thank you for the flower petals! And–”

“Yes, yes, that’s enough! Get going already!”

Fang turned around and ran off again, leaving flowers trailing in his wake. Seeing him so openly happy… it was just surreal! Even when he was in a good mood, usually he tried to pretend he wasn’t!

“He’s going to hate this later,” Chat said, a frown of pity on his face.

“I know right?” she replied. “Poor guy…”

Now to prepare herself for the long, likely disastrous journey to the Louvre to go save Nath. Oh boy…

-

Predictably, as soon as the akuma attack was over, Marinette had barely got to a secluded place and detransformed when she got a call from Fang.

“Hey Fang, what’s u–”

“Marinette what the HELL JUST HAPPENED?!”

She giggled – here it was, the temper tantrum that she had predicted. “Mind your language!”

“Ah, excuse me, I meant what the _fuck_ just happened. Is that better? Are your precious goody-two-shoes ears sufficiently shocked now?”

“Have you still got the flower petals in your hair?” she asked, laughing more.

“Of course not! I’ve taken them out!”

“Where even are you?”

“At your house, where else? I was supposed to be ‘protecting Marinette Dupain-Cheng’, remember? I didn’t even get to fight Reverser…”

Quickening her pace, she headed back towards her home. “That’s a good thing! I told you not to come with us on purpose, so that way you’d have less chance to… um… embarrass yourself in public by being… well, like _that_.”

“Oh…” He sounded just the tiniest bit less annoyed. “Thanks.”

“And it wasn’t a very dignified battle anyway. Nath tied Chat to a kite and Alix flew it. Don’t even ask.”

“…Right.”

“Anyway, don’t be too mad about being reversed! You got to be happy for a while, didn’t that feel nice?”

“This isn’t the first time,” he scoffed. “You think Adu Du hasn’t already done the same thing to me in the past? I already know what it’s like to be forced to feel happy against my will, and I don’t like it. Trust me. It’s not as fun as it sounds.”

Well, when he put it like that, it did sound downright dystopian…

“So,” she said, deciding to change the subject, “are you going to take me out?”

His blush was practically audible. “W-what?!”

“Ladybug recommended that you take me to the Louvre, remember? So are you going to?”

“Of course not! Why would I ever go to the Louvre?!”

“Because you said you ‘love that place so much’!”

“No I don’t!” he snapped. “I only said that because I was reversed! And I hate the Eiffel Tower too, by the way.”

Messing with him was just too much fun. Marinette knew she should stop, but he just made it too easy! “So then when you said that Marinette was the best, does that mean you actually hate me too? Since you were reversed when you said it?”

“Of course I don’t hate you! That part was true!”

“So you want to give me flowers and put them in my hair? Was that part true too?”

There was a long silence from the other end before Fang spoke. “Marinette… I will take you to the Louvre, as long as you promise to never bring up this stupid Reverser attack ever again.”

“Deal!” she said, quick before he changed his mind. “Should I meet you there? Since you’re at my place now, get my parents to give you some snacks and bring them along!”

“Are you kidding? If I told your parents I’m going to the Louvre with you they’d probably try and make me bring along a wedding cake or something.”

She laughed – it was true that her parents were rather… _enthusiastic_ about, well, whatever the hell was going on with her and Fang. It was odd to hear him actually acknowledge it for once. Clearly he was opening up about things.

In that case… would this Louvre date be a good opportunity for her to tell him that she liked him? Or was it obvious enough already? Should she just kiss him…?

Okay nope, that was way too stereotypically Parisian. Anyway, the poor boy had just had a pretty dreadful day. Now wasn’t the time for making a move. That could wait. She’d already pushed it far enough as it was by using her Ladybug persona to lowkey matchmake, especially since he knew that she was doing it.

Not to mention, Alix and Nath would probably be back at the Louvre, maybe even Marc too. Too much chance of bumping into them. Yeah, this was not the right time.

Oh, but when would be the right time?

-

Stupid Heroes’ Day. Its entire existence was basically just to make Ladybug even more popular than she already was, at the expense of everyone else. And no amount of “but on this day, _everyone_ gets to be a hero!” would make it true. No, this day was pretty much for Ladybug only. It may as well be renamed Ladybug Day!

That wasn’t the worst part, though. The worst part was Wayhem.

Fang had already been in a bad mood – the growing sentiment over Heroes’ Day, the fact that Marinette had been too busy with akuma attacks and making macarons for the class to hang out with him much, the fact that Lila had video called the class from her “holiday” and spun a bunch of ridiculous lies which everyone just believed without any further thought.

And now he found out that Heroes’ Day fell on one of the _stanning Adrien_ days on Wayhem’s schedule. That was right! On this day, when it would make sense to stan Fang, who was an actual superhero and regularly helped Ladybug and Chat Noir fight akuma villains, Wayhem would be busy stanning Adrien Agreste instead! All because of his dumb schedule!

Sure, Adrien was Chat Noir. But Wayhem had no idea of that. No, he was just being a freaking _traitor_ for literally no sensible reason.

Fang scrolled the Ladyblog forums, having searched up his own name and found that hardly anyone was talking about him at all.

_That alien guy hasn’t even been helping out much recently, has he? He can’t just pick and choose when to be heroic whenever it suits him! I won’t be celebrating him this Heroes’ Day, certainly not. If Paris needs help, it needs help. If you have the power to help, you shouldn’t simply say ‘no’. Fang is irresponsible._

Oh come on! As if precious perfect Ladybug herself wasn’t irresponsible sometimes too! And the problem was that half the time, Ladybug didn’t even need help. Fang would just stand there being useless and the media would go and report it as him “purposely not helping”. Then everyone got the wrong idea.

It made him sick with rage just to think of it! This stupid city didn’t deserve his help. And his idiot classmates could celebrate Heroes’ Day on their own, without him there.

“Ochobot, can you teleport me over there?” he said down the phone.

“Why?” Ochobot asked in reply. “Didn’t you say in your most recent Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng email that it’s Heroes’ Day, and you wanted to uh… what was it… ‘thrive off the popularity’ people would be showering you with?”

“No one’s showering me with anything but scorn! I don’t want to be here!”

“Alien Fang, I’m worried if I teleport you here, you’ll murder Fang…”

Just hearing about that crocodile made him twice as angry. “Just keep him out of my way. Please Ochobot? I’ll come back to Paris tomorrow, Kaizo doesn’t have to know I left for a day. Just… please, I need a break from this cursed city. I can’t stand it here right now.”

“I don’t know…”

“Look at this!” He turned on the camera and aimed it out of the window. “Do you see that parade? That huge Ladybug balloon? If you don’t teleport me over there right now, I’ll go and pop that balloon right in front of everyone. I’ll ruin everything, and then everyone will get akumatized from the shock of it. And it will serve them all right.”

“Fine, fine!” Ochobot opened up a portal. “Just hurry up.”

“Thank you Ochobot!”

Fang stepped through the portal. Instantly he was hit with muggy heat – oh, of course, he had forgotten the weather was often like this in Malaysia. Maybe he was getting more accustomed to the lower Parisian temperatures. It was already evening here too.

Ochobot closed the portal. “Hi Alien Fang! Everyone’s just here doing their homework together. Except Gopal, who’s gone off to hide the croc so you don’t yell at it. I’m gonna go recharge.”

Sure enough, his friends were sitting round the kokotiam with hot chocolates. They barely even looked up at him as he walked over to them.

“Oh hey Alien Fang. What’s up.”

“Nice jacket, Alien Fang.”

Alien Fang this! Alien Fang that! It was grating on his nerves so much, he wanted to rip off his own ears every time he heard that cursed phrase.

“I come here all the way from Paris, after months of not seeing you, and you don’t even care?” he snapped. “You guys are worse than the Parisians!”

A second later Gopal had rushed over and tackled him in a hug. “ALIEN FANG! You’re back! You’re back!”

“That’s so much better! Thank you Gopal, I–”

“I need help on my maths homework and none of the others will help me! You’ll help me, right?”

“You want me to help you with your HOMEWORK???”

Gopal nodded, sitting down and picking up his pencil. “This is actually last month’s homework, I just haven’t done it yet.”

Taking a seat, Fang leaned on the counter full of despair. “Why are none of you happy to see me?”

“Of course we are,” Boboiboy said. “But we’re in the middle of doing homework right now.”

“And plus, you’re not being a fashion disaster this time, so there’s nothing to laugh at you about,” Gopal added. “We also talk to you like every single day on video call so…”

Yaya gave them both a glare. “Alien Fang, we’re very happy to see you! We can hang out now, I’ll have time to do my homework later instead. Do you want to have some cookies?”

She pulled out a packet of cookies, only for Ying to snatch them away.

“Hey, don’t give him those! He literally just got here and you’re already trying to poison him? Shame on you!” She turned to Fang. “Does Captain Kaizo know you’re here?”

He shook his head. “He has no idea. Please don’t tell him.”

“We won’t. So why are you here anyway?”

“Heroes’ Day,” he muttered. “In other words, Ladybug Appreciation Day.”

They all gave each other a very suspicious look.

“What?”

“We just wonder sometimes why you still harbour so much aggression over Ladybug’s popularity,” Yaya explained, looking apologetic. “You’re considered a hero of the city too by now. And you obviously like her a lot as a person, so shouldn’t the popularity part not matter to you anymore?”

“Of course it matters!”

She sighed. “I just thought you might have grown out of it by now…”

Grown out of it? What was she implying, that he was being immature or something? He wasn’t! He just wanted to be popular, and he hated anyone who was more popular than him!

Oh… _oh._

Okay. That… that did seem a bit immature, now that he thought about it.

But he couldn’t help it! As soon as someone else got attention, the jealousy would just strike without warning! How was that his fault?

“What if someone gets akumatized?” Boboiboy asked. “You won’t be around to help out!”

Fang rolled his eyes. “As if Ladybug needs my help. She can do it on her own just fine, like always. And no one’s going to get akumatized today! Everyone’s just so happy. It’s like a national holiday.”

“What would happen if Marinette got akumatized?” Gopal mused. “Would everyone just be doomed?”

“Yep, pretty much.”

“That would make a really great chapter of the Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

“No it wouldn’t! How can you want Marinette to be akumatized?! She doesn’t deserve that! If she was in a bad enough mood to get akumatized, I would just cheer her up. I did that before once actually. Well I’ve probably done it a few times by now. I hate it when she’s upset, she doesn’t deserve that, she’s too awesome for that…”

He trailed off, noticing how the others were watching him in amusement.

“What?” He crossed his arms.

“You wrote three entire pages about her hair in your last email,” Gopal reminded him.

“S-so?”

Ying grinned at him. “We just like to hear you gushing about your girlfriend, it’s adorable.”

“Marinette is not my girlfriend!”

His phone started ringing. He checked it to see – oh, it was Marinette! Spirits lifting already, he couldn’t help but smile. Despite how busy Marinette was today, she was really making time out of her day to speak to him? That was so sweet of her….

“It’s Marinette – who is NOT my girlfriend, by the way,” he said to the others. Then he picked up the call. “Marinette! Hey sweetie, how are – uh I MEAN um, acquaintance, friend, friendship person… h-how are you?”

Ugh, how embarrassing! This wasn’t his fault, he just happened to be thinking about how sweet she was, and then his friends were all here laughing at him, and it completely threw him off!

To his shock, Marinette sounded very uneasy. “Whatever you saw on the news, I’m not akumatized and Chat Noir isn’t dead, okay?”

“Uh… what?”

“You didn’t see it? Oh, thank goodness! It was awful. At the Heroes’ Day parade, it looked like there was an akumatized Ladybug fighting Chat Noir, and she killed him with his own Cataclysm. I think it was an illusion, probably by Extraterrestrina.”

That name… it turned his stomach. “You mean Lila got akumatized again?”

“It seems likely. And I don’t know if you’re still holed up in your room or whether you’ve noticed all the scarlet butterflies everywhere, but lots of former akuma victims have been akumatized again.”

“What? More than one?”

“Yes. There’s got to be at least 20, if not more. Hawk Moth must have figured out a way to multiply his powers. We need your help.”

“I…” He was suddenly feeling a lot less glad that he had recklessly left Paris on a whim. “I’m kind of in Malaysia right now…”

“WHAT?”

“I left because of Heroes’ Day!” he admitted. “I was being a jealous brat again, I’m sorry, I didn’t think properly! I made Ochobot teleport me here.”

“Well can you make him teleport you back?”

“He’s recharging right now.”

“Are you kidding?!” Marinette was clearly frustrated. “How are me and Chat supposed to fight so many villains on our own? Can’t you get your brother to bring you here in his spaceship?”

“Kaizo will kill me if he finds out I left Paris, I can’t tell him! And he wouldn’t help anyway, he’d probably say it serves me right…”

Marinette sighed. “I’ll get Rena and Carapace and Queen Bee to help again then, I guess… How long will it take Ochobot to recharge?”

“Some hours maybe?”

“Fine. Just get here as quick as you can.”

“Okay. I will.”

“Thanks. Have fun in Malaysia.” She hung up.

Gopal gave Fang a poke with his pencil. “What was that about? Why do you look like someone died?”

The guilt was already starting to creep up his insides, shame along with it. Marinette had been counting on him to be there to help, hadn’t she? And he’d let her down…

“There’s an akuma attack,” he said. “Marinette wanted me to help.”

“Aww!”

“Not aww! It’s multiple akuma villains at once! She’s never faced this before! And instead of being there to help, I’m stuck here with you idiots…” He planted his face into the counter in front of him, already dead inside. “If I had stayed there, I really could have been popular. But not even being around on Heroes’ Day… now none of them will ever see me as a hero.”

“Marinette still will, won’t she?”

Huh… that was true. Though that being said, it was obvious that Marinette was annoyed at him right now.

“Anyway,” Gopal continued, “since you’ll be here for the next few hours, can you help me with my maths homework?”

Fang sighed. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do. “Sure, give it here…”

-

This had been a long, _long_ day.

Marinette was exhausted. Trying to hurriedly make food for her friends, then having to fight so many akumatized villains at the same time, then having to actually face the real Hawk Moth himself! This was the first time she had fought him directly, and considering that he’d managed to escape thanks to the unexpected help of the mysterious Peacock Miraculous holder, it didn’t bode well for the future.

Now she’d at least had help from her classmates for the picnic she had organized for them at the park. They were all so nice to her! Bringing food along, thanking her for her efforts, even calling her “Super Marinette” and their “everyday Ladybug” – hah, they didn’t even realize how true it was!

Only one of them knew how true it was, and he was still halfway across the world right now…

Marinette checked the time on her phone again. It was getting late. Everyone else had left by now. Alya had offered to wait, but Marinette had insisted that she go home. After all, if Fang did finally turn up, then Marinette wouldn’t be able to talk to him about Ladybug stuff with Alya still around.

Poor Fang. Marinette honestly didn’t blame him, she genuinely wasn’t mad at him for wanting to get some peace of mind. It was really quite nice that he had gone to visit his friends in Malaysia instead of sulking here in Paris and bringing down everyone’s mood. That was a lot better than he would have behaved a few months ago! How could he have known what a disaster was going to happen here without him? It wasn’t his fault.

But he hadn’t been here to join the superhero team. She knew for a fact that he already didn’t feel like a superhero here, that he didn’t fit in, because he didn’t have a Miraculous like the rest of them. Was it true? Was he just destined to be somewhere else? After all, they had managed to save the day without him plenty of times…

“Marinette! Did I miss the picnic?”

Looking up, she saw Fang running towards her, a portal closing up behind him. She leapt to her feet.

“There you are! I’m glad you could make it!”

He looked around at the deserted park. “…I did miss it, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did. But don’t worry!” she added hastily, seeing his face fall. “You were having a reunion with your own friends, right?”

“Only for a while, it’s the middle of the night there now so they’ve all been asleep for hours.”

“Oh…”

“Anyway,” he said, looking nervous now, “did the battle go okay? I mean, I kept checking the Ladyblog while I was over there and I know it all turned out fine, but…”

She nodded. “It was fine, don’t worry!”

“Cool, I’m glad you didn’t need me after all.”

He had said it offhand, but Marinette could tell how much it hurt him to admit it. “It’s not that we don’t need you! It’s just that… well…”

“It’s fine. I’m not one of the superheroes of this city.”

“You are! You’re a superhero to _me_ , okay? I like having you here! The city may not need you, but… but I…”

How could she just _say_ what she felt? Whenever she got close, she would devolve into idiot stuttering and end up just completely clamming up! But she did need him, or at least wanted him, and he needed to know that. She wanted him here. Because she…

Because she loved him, for goodness’ sake!

Plucking up all her remaining courage, she went up on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

When he didn’t respond for several seconds Marinette started flipping out. “I was b-being French! Yeah! Just… just normal French, Parisian behaviour! Haha… yes… normal Paris things…”

It was a lame excuse, and one that he had already used on her. Sure enough, he didn’t believe a word of it.

“Marinette, I’ve lived here for months,” he said, his voice surprisingly soft. “I know what that meant. And it wasn’t a… a normal Paris thing, or whatever…”

Watching her intently, he lifted his hand up to brush a few fingers through her hair, tracing his thumb across her cheek gently. She held her breath, her heart racing – he was never usually quite this… _affectionate_. Frequently serenading her from several metres away was one thing, but actually caressing her was… very, very different…

Even with the dim evening light she could see his face reddening, his eyes dropping down for a second as he moved closer to her, and tilted his head slightly, and started to close his eyes…

Time seemed to slow down. Marinette leaned towards him, only one thought running through her mind – _Fang was about to kiss her_.

About time…

Their lips were about to meet when her phone started ringing. Taking a step back she hastily took it out of her pocket to check – it was her parents.

She swore under her breath. What kind of bad timing?!

“Hi Papa!” she said, picking up and trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, despite being the complete opposite right now. “Um I’m kind of super busy right now hahaha! Uh… can you call back later?”

“I was just wondering what time you were coming back home!” her father said. “It’s getting late! Are you still with your friends? Do you need help packing everything up?”

“It’s all goodly fine… it’s… finely… um…”

“Marinette, are you alright? You sound–”

“I’m fine!!! I really am!!! I’ll be home soon and I’ll tell you everything, don’t worry!”

“Alright, if you say so! See you soon!”

“Bye Papa!” She quickly hung up and stuffed her phone back in her pocket.

Right… now what? Back to kissing?

But judging by the way Fang had taken several large steps away and was blushing like crazy, arms folded in his typical grumpy style, it was probably not going to happen.

Marinette grinned somewhat nervously. “So um… were you about to–”

“No I wasn’t,” he snapped.

“But…”

“I was just… just making fun of all you Parisians. You’re all obsessed with kissing, right? It was just that! It wasn’t like… not like I like you or anything…”

This freaking tsundere! How much more obvious could he make it that he really had meant to kiss her, no matter how much he was trying to backtrack now? It was like a badly written anime, good lord.

“We’re not obsessed with kissing,” she huffed. “That’s a stereotype. And anyway, you’re the one who kissed Lila after talking to her for a grand total of about 5 minutes…”

“Hey, I didn’t ask her to do it! And – and anyway, stop bringing up Lila! I wasn’t going to kiss you, and that’s that. Goodnight Marinette.”

He took a step forward, wavering for a second, probably contemplating whether to give her a goodbye cheek kiss or not – something that _was_ normal Parisian behaviour. Deciding against it, he turned and walked off without saying anything else.

Tikki popped her head out of her bag. “Marinette, for what it’s worth, in my opinion he was definitely trying to kiss you.”

“I know that,” Marinette muttered, fanning herself with her hand. “I wish he did! I wish we hadn’t been interrupted! Because now he’s failed, and he’ll be way too annoyed to try it again…”

“Guess you’ll have to kiss him first then.”

“W-what?! No way! I can’t do that!”

“Then you’re just as much of a disaster as he is.”

With that, Tikki ducked back into the bag and closed it.

Marinette stood there for several seconds in silence, thinking about her dumb tsundere maybe-boyfriend, and her own stupid brain for not being able to be much better about it than him. How perfect would the end of Heroes’ Day have been if he had actually kissed her?! But no! He didn’t!! Because of a damn phone call!!!

Now maybe he never would, and maybe he’d go back to his old life in a few months without Marinette ever having made it clear to him how she felt…


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this fic will end up having about 17 or 18 chapters. Basically, we're almost at the end now.
> 
> It's funny that my two least favourite episodes are Chameleon and Stormy Weather 2, and yet this chapter is probably my favourite so far, hehehe. You'll see why. Though, beware, it's kind of what they call the "calm before the storm"...

This was going to be a bad day. Fang could just tell.

It was first thing in the morning, and he sat in his seat in the classroom, already in a terrible mood. Lila Rossi was apparently coming back today. For obvious reasons, he was not looking forward to having to see her again, considering what had happened the last time they’d spoken…

Looking round the classroom from his lonesome spot at the back, he noticed with alarm that there was only one spare seat in the whole room – the one _right beside him_.

No! He didn’t want to have to sit next to freaking Lila!

“Morning Fang!” Alya came up to his desk, smiling brightly at him. “I know you and Lila have a bit of _history_ , right? Well you’re in luck! She’s got hearing issues so she has to sit in the front row, and you won’t have to sit next to her after all.”

Oh, phew. “Thanks for telling me.”

“No worries! And I’ve got even better news for you. Since the seating order’s getting shuffled around loads, I’ve tweaked things so that Marinette will be sitting here with you! Good news for both of you, huh?” She gave him a wink. “And I get to be next to Nino, so…”

She turned and went back to her seat. Fang’s spirits were lifting – how nice of her to do that for him! Of course sitting with Marinette would make him feel better. Marinette in general always did.

It did occur to him that he might end up distracted with her there, though…

Well never mind! That didn’t matter. It wasn’t like his schoolwork here had any effect on his life whatsoever, when he would be leaving in not too long anyway. He may as well make the most of this time.

Did Lila really have hearing issues? Sure, she was a liar, but it was probably in pretty bad taste to automatically disbelieve her over something like that, so for now he decided not to think about it.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, he went onto the Ladyblog and replayed the Heroes’ Day battle footage. Hawk Moth had actually bothered to show up in person for once, fully visible in his boring suit and full face mask. Since Fang had already recognized Ladybug and Chat Noir, would he be able to recognize who Hawk Moth was too?

But watching the footage carefully, it still didn’t ring any bells. Maybe it was just someone who he had never met before. Not being able to see most of the guy’s face did make it more difficult, and anyway, it had taken seeing the others in person for Fang to recognize them. This video footage wasn’t that helpful.

Marinette herself ran into the classroom, almost late as usual. Alya immediately started telling her about the new seating plan, and her face lit up just from hearing about it. Aww, that was so sweet! It seemed like she was just as happy to be able to sit with Fang as the other way round.

Then Ms Bustier opened the door, and Lila walked in…

Ugh. Seeing her right there in front of everyone was making Fang’s guts twist rather uncomfortably.

“Oh, a seat in the front row!” she gushed, sounding just as fake as ever. “You all remembered my hearing issue! You’re such sweethearts, all of you!”

Blowing a few kisses to the class, she slid into the seat beside poor Adrien, who didn’t look that happy to see her either.

Marinette, still standing beside Alya, crossed her arms. “You have a hearing problem, Lila?”

“Yes, I suffer from tinnitus, a constant ringing in my left ear.”

Fang rolled his eyes – okay, she most likely did seem to be lying about that, then. Because she hadn’t had any problem whatsoever back when he had talked some very quiet Italian into that very ear, as much as he hated to remember it now…

“I’ve had it ever since the sound of an aeroplane engine burst my eardrum on the runway when I was saving Jagged Stone’s lost kitten!” Lila continued.

Marinette didn’t look convinced. “Isn’t Jagged Stone’s pet a crocodile?”

“Now it is, yes, but he had a kitten until he found out he was allergic to it!”

More lies? Jagged Stone wasn’t allergic to kittens, nor had he ever had one. In fact, Fang doubted that Jagged even knew who Lila was. Did Lila really think everyone was going to believe that?

Seething, Marinette trudged to the back of the room and sat down in her new seat while Ms Bustier began the lesson up at the front.

“I don’t believe a word of this!” she whispered to Fang, not paying any attention to the teacher for once. “Lila’s clearly just lying to get closer to Adrien, look!”

Sure enough, Lila had already started draping herself over Adrien, clinging onto his arm and ignoring how uneasy he seemed.

“It’s fruitless anyway,” Marinette continued. “Adrien likes Kagami and he already knows Lila’s a liar. The thing about the kitten, that’s not true, is it?”

“Nope,” he replied.

“Exactly! I can’t believe she’s manipulating the whole class like this! We have to do something!”

“You can do what you want, please leave me out of this.”

“Don’t tell me you have a truce with Lila too!”

He glared down at the desk in front of him, unable to look Marinette in the eye. “No, I just… I haven’t talked to her since the… well, you know…”

The Extraterrestrina thing. That very awkward patch in his memory that he tried to block out as much as possible.

Marinette was giving him a sympathetic look. “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it then. I’ll sort this Lila thing out on my own–”

From the front of the room Ms Bustier cleared her throat. “Marinette, Fang, if you two don’t stop talking back there I’ll move you.”

They both quickly shut up. Fang looked down at his work, trying to concentrate. He could always talk to Marinette later anyway.

-

By lunchtime, nothing had improved. Fang sat there trying to drown out Lila’s constant lies of sprained wrists and various fake ailments to the rest of the class, and Marinette’s unsuccessful attempts to convince Alya and Nino of Lila’s guilt. Things went from bad to worse when Marinette tried to prove it by throwing a napkin at Lila, only for Lila to spin some new story about how the napkin would have somehow gouged out Max’s eyes if she hadn’t sacrificed her sprained wrist to stop it.

Even though _Max literally wore glasses_.

When Marinette stormed off in huff, Fang didn’t blame her one bit – this was getting too ridiculous for words. Humans were dumb and he knew it, but usually they weren’t quite this bad!

All the same he ran after her to go check on her, making sure to quickly finish all the carrots on his plate first of course. He managed to catch up to her in the courtyard – this girl could sure walk fast when she wanted to.

“Marinette! Are you okay?”

She wheeled round to face him. “This is ridiculous, her lies are so stupid and yet everyone just believes her! And Alya won’t believe me that Lila’s a liar, she thinks I’m just being salty and trying to get back at Lila for dumping you and messing around with your heart!”

“Well… are you?”

Her face went pink. “M-maybe, but it’s not just that! Our classmates don’t deserve to be lied to! And as Adrien’s friend now, I don’t like seeing Lila get all up in his personal space when he clearly doesn’t like it! I’m just… I’m so _angry!_ Lila makes me want to punch something!!!”

True to her word, she strode over to the wall and gave it a hefty punch with her fist.

Wow… Fang had never seen Marinette this mad at anything before. And… and putting aside the fact that her punching the wall like that had been rather… _attractive_ … the fact remained that she was in an incredibly bad mood, and bad moods usually meant an akuma was on its way. He couldn’t let that happen to poor Marinette!

But what could he do to calm her down? Usually she tended to cheer up when he was either serenading her or making her laugh, and the first one wasn’t an option right now. It probably wasn’t the best time for being romantic anyway.

“Hey, um…” He tried to put on a smile. “…at least you don’t wear glasses, so if any evil napkins come flying my way to gouge my eyes out, you can protect me from them.”

Marinette just stared for a second, before bursting into laughter. “Don’t worry, I’ll always protect your eyes from the _evil napkins!”_ She pulled him into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re around at least… Not because of the napkins! I mean in general, you make me feel so much better, thank you…”

Aware that he was blushing, he resisted the urge to hug her back. “Well it’s just because I don’t want you to get akumatized! Yeah, that’s it…”

That just made her laugh even more, and she hugged him tighter. “Someday… someday you’ll stop being all grumpy with me and pretending you don’t care…”

Alright, fine, he certainly wished he could! But it was so hard to think properly with Marinette hugging him like this, and the only way he could make his brain work was by being his usual harsh, grumpy self, so…

There was a commotion on the other side of the courtyard. Marinette let go of Fang and they both turned to look, only to see that Adrien was over there balancing on the railing and saying something to Nino. From the looks of it, he had stolen Nino’s cap too and was wearing it on his own head now.

“Haha, you should see your faces! Don’t miss my performance at the Eiffel Tower! You’re gonna love it!”

With that he leapt off the railing and down onto the ground far below, without injuring himself at all, and then somehow jumped right up onto the roof itself before bouncing away at top speed and cackling rather evilly.

Ah, right. Akuma powers.

Marinette clenched her fists. “I swear, if Lila got Adrien akumatized… Okay you know what? Fang, cover for me, I’ll go transform and sort this out. I know you don’t want to get involved in… Lila things… so you can stay here if you want.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I don’t want to go to the Eiffel Tower anyway.”

Somehow, despite her obvious bad mood, she smiled again. “Why do you hate the Eiffel Tower so much?”

“It’s just the worst! How can you _not_ hate it?”

“You hate it because it’s popular, don’t you?”

“Just go already!”

“Heh, fine! See you later, darling!” She kissed his cheek and then ran off.

 _Darling???_ He didn’t know whether to swoon or throw up…

In any case, he opened up the Ladyblog to keep an eye on things. If Adrien really was akumatized then Chat Noir wouldn’t be able to show up to the fight, so Marinette would likely have to go and recruit one of the others to help her.

Not Fang though… he was well aware that he didn’t need to help. Ladybug had managed to save the day every single time so far, and he had never been 100% necessary even once. Being part of her life was one thing, but being part of her superhero team was something that simply didn’t apply to him, no matter how much he tried.

He refreshed the Ladyblog forums to check the latest news. Someone had written how the akuma villain could take on the appearances of other people, just like a chameleon, and seemed to have a personal grudge against Ladybug, and Chat Noir himself had shown up to the battle…

Oh, so the villain wasn’t Adrien after all. If anything, it sounded more like it was Lila. Well then never mind! He didn’t want to bother keeping up with it if that was the case! He closed the Ladyblog and went back off to the dining room to finish his lunch. He trusted Marinette to be able to sort this out.

-

Sure enough, the battle was done before lunch was even over. Who knew why Lila had got akumatized? She wasn’t telling. Though she sure was boasting to everyone in the class all about how Ladybug saved her life again because they were “best friends”, and no one questioned it at all!

Fang was not bothering to pay attention in class that afternoon. With the saviour of Paris sitting right beside him, and knowing that she cared about him without him needing to lie about it, all he could do was doodle tiny hearts into his notebook, daydreaming about her saving _him_ from being akumatized, even though it could never happen…

Vaguely he could hear Adrien asking Ms Bustier if he could have his old seat back beside Nino – huh, good for him. The sooner he could get away from Lila, the better, at least until she stopped fawning over him in a way that creeped him out so much.

Oh, and now some of the other kids were asking for their seats back, there was a lot of shuffling around going on, and Fang tried his best to drown it out and concentrate on thoughts of his _darling_ Marinette… oh yes, she had called him darling…

“Oh look, my tinnitus is gone! I can still sit with Adrien now! It’s a miracle, Ladybug must have healed it for me!”

Fang rolled his eyes – so the tinnitus thing really had been a lie after all. Lila wasn’t even being subtle now. Surely the others would finally catch on?

He only began paying proper attention when he noticed that Marinette had gathered up her things and was standing up to go sit with Alya again.

“Hey!”

“Sorry Fang!” she said. “Look, I… the truth is, I kind of get a bit distracted with you there, hehe…”

Blushing, she walked off. Oh come on! It wasn’t like he didn’t get distracted with her there too!

Well fine… that was probably a bad thing…

At least with her back in her normal seat, Ivan would block Fang from being able to see her during class, and he could at least do some work without thinking about her too much. He saw her enough outside of school anyway.

Then Lila came over and sat in the seat next to him.

No.

_No._

_NO._

“Hello again,” she simpered, giving her long hair a flip.

“I’m taken, so don’t even try it this time,” he said immediately. It might not have been a complete lie, to be fair.

She gave him a somewhat suspicious smile. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ve moved onto someone much better. And you can tell your precious Marinette that if she doesn’t stop bugging me and trying to tell everyone what a liar I am, I’ll make her wish she’d never met me. I’ll ruin her whole life.”

“Tell her yourself.”

“I will.”

There were a few seconds of frosty silence before she spoke again.

“I know we got off to a bad start, but I’m willing to look past that. The choice is yours. You are either with me, or against me. What do you say? With me?”

She held out her hand for a handshake, but Fang simply crossed his arms.

“You literally just threatened to ruin Marinette’s life, why would I be with you?” he pointed out.

Lila narrowed her eyes at him. “Well fine then, it looks like you’ve made your choice. But I know you, Fang. I know exactly how to ruin your life too. All you care about is popularity, you’re obsessed with it, you’ll do anything for it no matter what, it’s the only thing in your life you care about–”

“You mean just like you?”

She gasped, offended, before scooting to the edge of the table and sitting on the very end, ignoring him completely.

Grinning, Fang turned back to his work. He knew perfectly well that Lila was a bit like him – obsessed with attention and popularity, and very prone to anger when she didn’t get what she wanted. But the difference was that she was crueller, more self-obsessed, and lied far too much to get it. He knew _exactly_ what to do or say that would annoy her.

Huh, maybe sitting next to her wouldn’t be so bad after all! If he could just forget about what had happened between them a few months ago, it might actually be alright!

Oh, but he could never forget. He had just been an idiot. And to think that if that hadn’t happened, maybe his first kiss might actually have been with Marinette instead!

But no, that wasn’t going to happen either…

He had already tried to kiss Marinette. And that stupid phone call had interrupted him! Now how could he do it? It was way too awkward! It was bad enough to make himself vulnerable enough to admit he wanted to, he couldn’t do that again…

It wouldn’t be long before he had to leave Paris anyway. What was the point?

Plus, she was too popular. WAY too popular. All anyone cared about in this city was Ladybug, and as much as he adored her, it still annoyed him. Fine, Lila had been right, he was far too obsessed with popularity. But he couldn’t help it! Marinette was far too popular, and that was that!

-

Fang had not yet been in Paris the first time Stormy Weather had attacked the city. Sure, he’d watched clips of it on the Ladyblog, but it didn’t seem to be much of a big deal. He already knew someone who could make thunderstorms on cue, why should it matter if some lame akuma villain did it?

And then Aurore got akumatized again.

This time, Stormy Weather _changed the entire orbit of the planet_.

No akuma villain so far had been powerful enough to cause an effect outside of Paris. But this time she had caused an ice age around the whole globe. Now everyone around the world was focused on Paris, wondering what the heck was going on in this stupid little city that had caused the Earth itself to freeze.

That meant that when Ladybug saved the day, as she always did, this time it wasn’t just Paris who were stanning her.

It was EVERYONE ON THE PLANET.

Fang could barely even contain his rage. As if he hadn’t helped save the planet before too! But no one had cared that time, had they?! Because no one ever cared about him, all they ever cared about was Ladybug!!!

And whenever he had been fighting evil bad guys who were trying to take over the planet for whatever reasons, this planet that _he wasn’t even from but still protected anyway, because he was a decent freaking person_ , he had fought them in an epic battle.

What had Ladybug done?

Thrown a pencil at the akuma villain.

Literally! She had saved the day with a pencil!!!

Now all the media were swarming round her and asking for details, dozens of translators hurriedly churning out articles and videos for global fans who were just getting to know of these Parisian heroes, plenty of citizens asking for her autograph and trying to get selfies with her.

Fang couldn’t stand it. He knew he was being petty, he didn’t even care. The jealousy was so overwhelming he just stormed off down the street, not much caring where he was going, just hoping to get as far away from her as possible. Marinette, Ladybug, whatever. Too popular for her own good and it would never end, NEVER. Everyone would stan her beyond reason, right until the very end.

The bug herself dropped down in front of him, evidently having managed to get away from the swarms of reporters. “Hi Fang!”

“What do you want?!” he snapped. “I don’t want your autograph, or a picture, or an interview, or anything like that! But the rest of the planet certainly does so why don’t you go ask them?! Go away!”

Hanging there upside-down like Spiderman, she simply sighed and made no move to leave. “Why are you like this?”

“I don’t know, aren’t you used to it?”

“But I thought things were different now! …You know, since you like me and everything…”

He ignored how the pain in her voice was scratching into him like needles – now was not the time for sympathy, nor for a cheesy love confession. “Well… well YOU’RE the one who likes ME!”

Under the mask, her face was going the familiar Marinette shade of pink. “Y-you’re the one who’s always being all flirty, playing me serenades and… and getting me that hamster, and…”

Oh come on, why right _now?_ Why bring all this up now when he was in a bad mood, mad at her for being as unnecessarily popular as she was? That was just pure cheating. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. But right now, everything was hurting him! He didn’t want to have to care!

Anyway, if she wanted him to care, she could just say it outright…

“This is like Adrien all over again,” he said finally. “You are just completely incapable of directly telling anyone you like them, aren’t you?”

From her silence he knew he had hit a nerve. Well it was true! She was never going to be able to tell him she liked him. If he wanted a confession of love from her, he was never going to get one. Because the girl he had fallen for was _Marinette_ , and Marinette was the worst person in the world at being able to confess her love. She never had, and she never would.

With a heavy heart, he resigned himself to this fact. Nothing was ever going to really happen between them. It was probably just best to leave.

He took a step back…

Only for Marinette to reach forward, grab his face, pull him towards her and–

_–and kiss him right on the lips???_

Too shocked to do anything, he simply stood there like an idiot. She must have been shocked at her own self, too – a second later she let go and hastily swung back up onto the roof of the building she had dropped off in the first place. Then she was gone.

Fang stood very still for a long time. Had that really just happened?

Marinette had… kissed him? Marinette had _Spiderman-style_ kissed him?

Huh… that was a confession of love if there ever was one.

And now what? _Now what???_

-

“Are you alright, Fang?” Penny asked, sitting down beside him.

He pulled one earbud out. Listening to stupid love songs on repeat wasn’t helping anyway. “Yeah. I guess.”

“You seem very distracted today…”

Well, he’d have to tell someone at some point – it may as well be his honorary mother. He curled up a little and spoke quietly. “Marinette kissed me.”

“Oh! Is that good news?”

Pfff, he could easily hear the excitement in her voice. No doubt she’d been shipping it for ages or something, just like everyone else in Paris did.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I… I really like her. A lot. But I just can’t tell her! And I know she’s mad at me about that!”

Curling up even more, he thought about what he had said to Marinette earlier. That she was incapable of telling people she liked them… well so was he, he couldn’t deny it! She was right the many times she’d called him a “tsundere”. He was just as bad, if not worse… and considering Marinette had the guts to outright kiss him and not chicken out like he had done, yeah, he was definitely worse…

“Why can’t you tell her?” Penny asked. “Are you too nervous?”

“I’m just an idiot,” he said. “She’s just so – so freaking _popular!_ And I can’t stand it, I get so jealous and then I don’t even think properly! I hate that she’s so popular. But I also don’t, because I’m happy for her… but also not… I mean, I should be happy for my own girlfriend, but…”

Calling Marinette his girlfriend out loud for once gave him an odd sort of buzz – he hadn’t actually done that before. Usually he was too busy denying it.

“It’s okay to have mixed feelings,” Penny said, caring as always. “You really love her a lot, don’t you?”

He nodded. He did, so much.

“I think it’ll make you much happier if you tell her that. You might find yourself overlooking the popularity aspect once you do.”

Ohhh, he knew that. He’d overlook anything for her. But just telling her was the hard part!

A thought suddenly struck him – one that was silly enough to make him smile.

“Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll tell Marinette I have a crush on her. But in return, you have to tell Jagged that you like him.”

“Uh – what?!” Penny coughed and dropped her clipboard. “What on earth makes you think–”

“I’m not dumb. It’s obvious.”

She was blushing now, refusing to look at him. “I thought I had kept it well-hidden…”

“No, not at all.”

“Fine.” She smiled at him. “I’ll tell him.”

“Cool. Good luck.”

“You too.”

“Thanks ma– uh, Penny!”

Had he really just been about to call her “maman”?! How embarrassing! It wasn’t like she was his real mum! He stuffed the earbud back in his ear and got up and left as quick as possible.

Okay, okay… he had to go see Marinette now. Right now. Better to get this out of the way as soon as possible.

In fact, this wasn’t even just about confessing his love for her – she knew perfectly well that he was into her, of course, whether he outright said it or not. No, this was about his entire attitude towards her.

Most important, he _had to_ get this jealousy nonsense under control! The more of a petty brat he was being, the more it annoyed her. He’d already pushed it far enough as it was. How she managed to tolerate him half the time, he had no idea. If he carried on being so grumpy, she’d end up getting sick of it and he would lose his chances forever.

Alright then. He was going to be a proper boyfriend from now on. No more being unnecessarily moody, no more making poor Marinette exasperated from his stupid antics over popularity. He needed to get rid of the instinct to be sarcastic at her entirely.

Time to do something drastic.

-

Marinette leaned against her balcony railing, staring out over the city. Her lips still tingled every time she thought about the complete idiot move she’d just made…

“Tikki, I’m a moronosaurus,” she whispered.

Tikki popped up and gave her an encouraging smile. “No you’re not! You’re just in love!”

“He’s probably so mad at me…”

“Why?”

“Well he was already mad at me, and then I just kissed him! Oh why did I do that, why am I such an idiot…”

“Isn’t this a good thing?” Tikki asked. “You’ve had a crush on him for a long time, and I’m sure he felt the same way. And now you finally did something about it!”

“Yeah…”

It was hard to explain all the mixed feelings. But what could she do about it now? She’d made it clear how she felt, now it was his turn. And knowing him, he’d probably just start whining about popularity or something again just to avoid the topic…

“What’s that?” Tikki asked, pointing at something.

Marinette looked over in that direction to see that there was some large bird in the distance, flying towards them. Ugh, was that another akuma villain? Stormy Weather’s revamped self had been bad enough, she didn’t feel like dealing with another one right now, especially if it was just Mr Pigeon again for the twentieth time.

Hang on… that wasn’t a bird…

“That’s a dragon!” she said, happiness flooding her. “It’s Fang’s shadow dragon!”

He was coming to visit her! And in a much cooler way than usual, apparently – he didn’t tend to bring out the dragon outside of akuma attacks.

Oh… and then she remembered how much of an idiot she’d just been…

The nerves were hitting now. Whatever he was here to see her for, she hoped it wouldn’t hurt too much.

He landed on the balcony and immediately jumped off and went over to her.

“Marinette! Are you busy right now?”

“No…?”

He grinned suddenly. “Do you want to go to the Eiffel Tower?”

“Wait… right now? With you?”

“Yeah.”

“Um… sure!”

Well, this was unexpected. Even more unexpected was that he suddenly _picked her up_ and carried her over to the dragon, putting her on it.

Talk about being swept off her feet…

“I think I’ll just stay here,” Tikki said, munching on a cookie and looking suspiciously smug.

“Are you sure?” Marinette asked.

“I’m very sure!”

“Well alright then… See you later!”

Fang leapt onto the dragon too and then sent it soaring up into the air. It wasn’t technically the first time Marinette had flown on a dragon – she had done it as Ladybug during the Guitar Villain attack, back when Fang had still been petty enough to help an akuma villain with his powers rather than fighting. This was the first time she had the luxury of enjoying the view, though.

Once the dragon was cruising steadily through the air, Fang sat down and suddenly pulled out a guitar.

“Are you really going to serenade me up here?” Marinette asked, trying not to laugh. This was just getting more and more surprising.

“Don’t laugh,” he mumbled, before starting to play. _“I can show you the world, shining, shimmering…_ hey, I said don’t laugh!”

She hastily got her giggles under control. “But that’s from Aladdin!”

“I know! It’s Earth culture! That’s why I’m singing it! I’m really trying, okay?”

Aww, that was so sweet of him! “Okay okay! Keep going, I won’t laugh, I promise…”

“Good.” He cleared his throat and carried on.

Marinette held back her laughter this time. It really was very sweet to have a childhood favourite song sung to her, high up in the clouds, by a very cute boy. If this was him trying to confess his feelings for her, he was doing a pretty good job. And most of all, it was relieving to note that he didn’t seem to be mad at her at all for her somewhat impulsive act earlier. Nor for the Stormy Weather thing anymore.

Just as the song ended, the dragon touched down at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Fang jumped off and then helped Marinette down too.

“I thought you didn’t like the Eiffel Tower,” she said.

Still holding her hand, he took her over to the railing where they could enjoy the view of Paris. “It’s… it’s not that bad, actually…”

Okay, _wow_. If he was admitting that he didn’t hate the Eiffel Tower, which he usually despised with all his heart and soul, he must be in a very sentimental mood indeed.

“And anyway, the point is that you like it here,” he said. “I wanted to take you somewhere that you like.”

Marinette knew she must be blushing. “Fang, is this supposed to be a date?”

“Well… well you’re the one that kissed me earlier, so obviously you like me a lot, so… so I’m just trying to one-up you, that’s all…”

Right. There he was, back to the usual grumpiness and denial. She immediately let go of his hand, her heart sinking. “Sounds like you’re ‘completely incapable of directly telling anyone you like them’ too, huh…”

She turned to leave. There was just no point trying anymore.

“Marinette, wait!”

What now? She waited, arms folded, wondering what he had to say for himself.

To her surprise, he seemed to do a complete 180.

“I know I’ve been an idiot, I’m sorry! I’ll stop now. I promise. I won’t be a… an annoying jealous brat like I’ve been all the time. Even when you’re being really popular, whether as Ladybug or Marinette. I won’t do that anymore from now on. Ever.”

He kept looking at the floor, too nervous to look at her directly, hands fiddling with the sleeves of the jacket tied around his waist. For once he sounded more nervous than she had ever heard him before – did he really mean all of this?

“And thank you for being so patient with me,” he carried on, his face slowly turning red. “You’re always so kind, and so positive, and… and you make me want to be a better person. So I will. I’ll stop being a jerk, I know all it does is put you off and makes everyone hate me. And I guess you know this already, but I l-love you so much I don’t know what to do with myself…”

Did she hear that right?

Did he actually, really just say that?!

“And I don’t know what I’m doing! I have no idea how to impress you, but um… did you like the dragon flight? And the serenades?”

Now he finally looked at her directly, a nervous smile on his face as he waited for her response.

For what had to be at least ten full seconds, Marinette just stood on the spot, mouth open in shock. Was she even awake right now? This seemed like something out of a dream! Fang had actually, finally told her that he liked her! And without taking it back this time!

Eventually she managed to get her mind working enough to nod and give a reply, despite the fact that she was most definitely swooning hard on the inside. “Y-yes… I loved the dragon flight! And the serenades! I’m super impressed! I already was!”

“Aw, really?”

“Of course! And I loved the hamster, and the superhero help, and the macarons, and everything else…”

His nervous smile gave way to an outright affectionate one, and he put his arms around her and hugged her close. “Marinette, you’re the best.”

She didn’t even know what to say to that – it was so new for him to just be openly saying things like that, when usually his compliments were hidden beneath several layers of sarcasm, denial and general tsundere attitude.

Luckily she didn’t have to respond. Pulling back a little, he put his hands on the side of her face and then, rather hesitantly, pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

Unlike the hasty Spiderman kiss from earlier, this time Marinette had the time and space to _feel_ this. Warm, gentle, kind of weird but in a good way – the fact that she was actually kissing the boy she loved was like electricity through her nerves. She was still half hugging him too, and going onto tiptoes just to be that little bit closer…

Wow. This was exactly what she had wanted. All these weeks, all these months… _this_.

It probably didn’t last too long, but then again, Marinette’s sense of time perception was all warped from her brain trying to process all these sudden emotions, so she really had no idea how long it had been. She opened her eyes to see that Fang was standing there blushing bright red, hands over his mouth, as if he was surprised that he had done that. Or enjoyed that.

“That was very Parisian of you,” Marinette said, giggling a little. Taking a girl up to the Eiffel Tower, singing to her, and then declaring your love and kissing her in a sudden burst of passion? Very stereotypically Parisian.

He looked at the ground, hands still covering his mouth, his voice coming out as a mumble. “Marinette I… I have no idea how to…”

“How to what?”

“What else? How to kiss!”

His face went an even deeper shade of red. Was he really that nervous about it?

She gently took his hands in her own, giving them a reassuring little squeeze. “That doesn’t matter to me! You’re already good at serenades, don’t worry.”

“Phew, okay…”

“And anyway, I must be one of the only people in the city to have kissed an alien.”

“Heh, true. And I’m one of the only people in the city to have kissed Ladybug.”

Now he was back to his adorable smug self, and Marinette just laughed. She just loved this idiot boy too much, really, she did.

“I think I should probably take you back home now,” he said, somewhat reluctantly. “Tikki’s still there, and your parents don’t know you’re here, so…”

Of course! Her parents!

“You should come to dinner tomorrow!” she said. “I know my parents would love that!”

“Wait, really? Is that okay with them?”

“Yes, don’t worry! They’ll be so happy when I tell them.”

“Do I um… need to like… bring anything?”

Bless him, he really just was so nervous about all of this. It was clear he cared about her so much, he only wanted the best for her. It made her heart swell.

“Just bring yourself,” she said, giving him the sweetest smile she could. “Though, flowers are customary…”

“I’ll bring flowers! I’ll get – I’ll get a bouquet! Should I? Is that over the top?”

“Don’t worry about being over the top, my parents will already be doing that themselves. Just… just be yourself. I already like you how you are now. You don’t have to worry.”

He nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

Getting rather lovestruck, she clung onto him tightly. “So are you going to take me home now? On the dragon? It was super amazing on the way here…”

Her blatant swooning seemed to give him the confidence he needed – acting much more suave now, he lifted her onto the dragon again, then climbed on and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before setting off.

It was just as great as it had been on the way here. And after dropping her back off on her balcony and flying off to the hotel again, Marinette simply sank to the ground and sat there, watching the sunset, thinking about what had just happened and _melting_.

“How was that?” Tikki asked, munching on a cookie.

Marinette just sighed. “Everything is perfect right now, Tikki…”

“Oh good! I knew it would turn out alright!”

Yeah. It had turned out much better than just “alright”.

Hopefully everything would stay this perfect from now on…


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, this has been one hell of a week due to real life stuff (and also I was lowkey procrastinating, because I do feel at least a little bad about being evil... mild apologies in advance >:D)
> 
> Anyway, there's only about 1 or 2 more chapters after this. It's occurred to me that there's a much more entertaining story waiting to be written about the crocodile's adventures in Malaysia with the squad. If anyone wants to write that, you will have my eternal gratitude :D

There were a lot of weird people in Paris, that was for sure. But none were quite as weird as good old Gopal Kumar back on Rintis Island, who had tossed a bunch of banknotes into the air and was now rolling around in them on the ground.

“I’M RICH! I’M SO RICH!”

Fang just watched him through the screen, not even bothering to comment.

“Gopal, don’t do that!” Yaya said. “The money’s got dirt on it now! Gross!”

“Who cares? I can just dry clean it, since I’m rich now!”

“That’s not how dry cleaning works…”

Fang cleared his throat. “Gopal, are you done yet?”

Gopal stood up and brushed several loose notes off his jacket. “Okay, I’m done. For now, hehehe. Seriously though Alien Fang, thank you so much for such an amazing chapter in the Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Sales have been through the roof!”

He just rolled his eyes at that. It was pretty obvious why everyone had loved the last one, and that reason was certainly to do with his now _girlfriend_ Marinette…

“It was a little tricky getting rid of all the Ladybug parts in this one,” Yaya admitted. “We had to change the bit when she Spiderman-kissed you, for example. As iconic as that was, most of your fans don’t know about that. Just us.”

“When do we get to meet Marinette?” Ying asked. “She’s practically a celebrity here now!”

“But I’m more of a celebrity, right?” Fang asked quickly.

“Um… yeah. Of course.”

“Good. Anyway, you can get Ochobot to teleport you to Paris if you’re really that desperate to meet her.”

“Ooh, good idea!” said Boboiboy. “Maybe I can go there and get akumatized! That would be so cool!”

Fang crossed his arms. It was so unfair – his human friends could get akumatized, and he couldn’t!

But then again, if he did get akumatized, that would mean that Marinette would have to fight him, and he very much did not like the idea of that…

Yaya gave Boboiboy a glare. “Don’t be ridiculous, it would be dangerous if you got akumatized! You’re already powerful enough as it is! We can’t have you being evil too!”

“Aw, I know…”

“Anyway,” she said, turning back to the screen, “that’s not why I’m calling. I wanted to give you advice based on all the research I’ve done on French culture!”

“I’ve been living here for months, I obviously know more about French culture than you,” he pointed out.

Yaya cleared her throat and read aloud from the latest email. _“You guys, I have no idea what I’m doing, Marinette is too cute and I keep thinking I’m going to mess up because she’s way too good for me, and I don’t know the first thing about having a French girlfriend, oh god please help me–”_

“Alright, alright! Fine! Give me your… your French culture advice…”

“Excellent!” Yaya smiled, just a little too smug, and pulled up several sheets of paper. “To tell the truth, I do think you already know most of this. You understand French etiquette, the French language, and French food. So I’ve been asking your classmate Alya for advice that’s more specific.”

Oh yes, of course, he had forgotten that Yaya had pen-pals in practically every corner of the world, and that now included Alya Césaire too. At least Alya knew Marinette pretty well, being her best friend and all. Maybe her advice might actually be just the tiniest bit useful.

“According to Alya, Marinette likes it when you compliment her hair, and dislikes it when you try to imply that you’re better than her,” Yaya continued. “She also loves video games and will probably beat you at them.”

“Hah, she can’t beat me!” Gopal scoffed.

“Yes she can. Most definitely.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Marinette is one of the best gamers in Paris!” Fang said, indignant, before Yaya could even reply. “She’s literally won gaming competitions here! She’s way better than you, she’s better than anyone else, no one can beat her…”

They were all staring at him now, amused.

“What?”

“It’s adorable to hear you showing off about her!” Ying laughed. “Much better than how you were before.”

“Well… well she’s clearly the best, and she picked _me_ , so that makes me the best too! No one else is cool enough to get freaking Ladybug to fall in love with them.” That wasn’t quite true, since Fang knew for a fact that had he not been in Paris, Marinette would probably still be head-over-heels for Adrien right now, but in a way that just proved his point even more. Marinette had picked _him_ over anyone else. And it felt so good.

“Another thing,” Yaya said, grinning now, “since your favourite animal is the penguin, I thought you might like to know the true origins of the ‘Super Penguino’ meme Alya told me about.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Fang said quickly, his face heating up just hearing those words.

“No, I’m going to tell you! Ahem. So, while it’s become a general metaphor for kisses, originally it was actually specifically meant to be referencing what is known in English-speaking countries as ‘French kissing’, which I find funny, as you’re in France right now! And anyway, what that basically means is like normal kissing, except–”

“I know what it means!” he snapped.

“Oh good! Since your girlfriend is French, maybe you should–”

“Maybe you should mind your own business!” He didn’t even know how to kiss normally, what made them think he was going to do that?!

Gopal was grinning just as much as Yaya now. “Did you and Lila do it that one time?”

“No! Shut up!”

“What actually does it mean?” Boboiboy asked.

Gopal covered Boboiboy’s ears with his hands. “Never mind. Speaking of things that Boboiboy is too innocent to know about, what about French swearing? Do you know French swear words?”

Ah, now that was a much less embarrassing topic of discussion! Fang pushed up his visor, his turn to grin now. “Of course I do.”

“Do people swear there?”

“Yep. A lot.”

“Can you teach me?”

Yaya had got out her notebook and her little pen, clicking it menacingly. “Don’t you dare teach Gopal how to swear in French! You want me to write your names down and give you detentions?”

“Please give the crocodile a detention on my behalf,” Fang muttered. “He deserves it… stealing all my popularity…”

“Oh! Speaking of the crocodile, that reminds me, we’re planning his leaving party soon!”

Fang’s heart jumped at hearing that. “He’s leaving?”

“Of course. He has to go back to Paris soon and join Jagged Stone. And you’ll be coming back here.”

Oh…

Of course.

Fang had completely forgotten.

His heart was sinking now, mood crashing right down. He would be leaving Paris soon. Much sooner than he had realized. How had these months gone by so fast?

“Judging by the look on your face, you’re not prepared to come back yet,” Yaya said. “Does Marinette know you’ll be leaving?”

“Of course she knows,” he replied. “Well… unless she’s forgotten…”

“You can remind her when you go to her house for dinner today!”

Seriously? Would that even be a good time to bring it up? Anyway, Marinette had that massive calendar in her room with everything on it, so surely she had put it on there. Though, that being said, she had stopped using the calendar so much after going off Adrien, so chances were she hadn’t looked at it in a while…

“I’ll see,” he said. “Anyway I have to get ready now, so…”

“Really? You still have several hours to go!”

“So? I have so many guitar pieces I need to practise!”

They had all started laughing at him, so he just glared at them and ended the call. Marinette liked his guitar serenades, so there!

-

“Did you like the food?” Sabine asked.

Fang just nodded eagerly, his mouth still stuffed with food. Why were Marinette’s parents so cool?! All of this was amazing! The fact that they had made everything heart-shaped was more than a little cheesy, but it was nice to know they approved of him at least – while Kaizo didn’t seem to care either way about Marinette’s existence, there was no way he’d make a giant meal celebrating her.

“You should come over more often!” Tom said now.

Marinette was blushing, clearly embarrassed by the lengths her parents were going to. “He already comes over almost every day!”

“Well he should come over for dinner more! What about once a week? That sounds like a good idea! Join our family dinners once per week, Fang!”

Once a week… ah. About that.

“That won’t be a lot of weeks, since I’m leaving Paris soon,” he said quietly.

There were a few seconds of confused silence.

“What do you mean?” Sabine asked.

Seeing their dismayed faces made him wonder if bringing this all up now was a bad idea. But hey, he’d already said it now. “I was only meant to be here for 8 months. My brother will pick me up soon and drop the crocodile back off.”

There was another silence. Yep, this had probably been a mistake.

“I… I didn’t realize your time here was already almost over,” Marinette said, in a hushed voice. “I completely forgot…”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Fang, can’t you stay longer?” Tom said. “What about poor Marinette?”

Ugh, if only he could! How to tell them, without stressing them out, that he didn’t want to suffer Kaizo’s wrath?

“I can’t, I’m sorry,” he said.

To his alarm, there were tears spilling out of Marinette’s eyes, which she was hastily trying to wipe away.

“Marinette, are you–”

“I’m fine!” she said. “It’s f-fine! I just… um… Hang on, I h-have to go, sorry, see you tomorrow…”

With that, she leapt up from her seat and ran up to her bedroom, quietly sobbing.

Seeing Marinette cry was honestly the most painful thing ever. But what could he do about it? Should he go up to her room and talk to her? But maybe she just wanted time for herself, or wanted to talk to Tikki or something… after all, she had said she would see him tomorrow, so it sounded like she didn’t want to talk right now at all…

He looked back to see that her parents were looking just as heartbroken. In fact, Tom looked almost as if he was holing back a glare. Understandable, considering that Fang had sort of just made his daughter cry.

Welp, this was awkward. Probably best to leave.

“Thanks for the dinner,” he said, standing up.

“You’re very welcome.” Sabine was clearly trying to put on a smile.

Tom didn’t say anything at all.

Yep, definitely time to get out of here. Fang left the room and headed down the stairs, his own heart breaking as he did so. Damn, he was really going to miss Paris a lot, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng most of all…

There was a crashing sound from behind him. He turned to see that the walls and roof had been ripped away, and a huge beanstalk was sprouting out of the ground, shooting up towards the sky.

An akuma attack! Wait, which one of them was it? Please not Marinette, that would be a complete disaster!

Just about to use his shadow powers to fly up the beanstalk and figure out what was going on, several beanstalk branches wrapped around him, pinning his arms to his sides and rendering him unable to do anything. The next second, some kind of giant fluffy monster had leapt in front of him.

“You dare break my daughter’s heart?!” it boomed. “Well now you can never leave Paris! You’ll have to stay here FOREVER!”

With an almighty laugh, the creature sent the branches high up into the air, Fang along with them, until he was up in the clouds in a tangle of green vines, the prickly beanstalk stem digging into his back.

Was the akuma villain Tom? It had to be! It had certainly sounded like him, and looked a bit like him too underneath all the fur.

Oh no… so Tom had got akumatized, because Fang had made Marinette cry…

It wasn’t his fault though! He had to leave, that wasn’t his choice! It was all Kaizo’s fault for sending him here! If he had never come here, he wouldn’t have met Marinette and–

He stopped that train of thought immediately. The idea of never having met Marinette was one that was just too much for him. Marinette was one of the best things to have ever happened to him, and he wouldn’t give that up for the world.

The akumatized Tom was nowhere in sight – probably gone off to go fight Ladybug and Chat Noir. With nothing else to do here but wait, Fang started wondering…

…Would Kaizo let him stay in Paris? If he asked nicely enough?

But then again, what about his friends in Malaysia? Of course he had to go back to them! He had chosen to stay with them in the first place, several years ago. It had been bad enough convincing Kaizo to let him do that. How much worse would it be now?

Well… he still had some time to decide. For now, he could keep his options open. _Maybe_ he could stay in Paris. Just maybe. It wasn’t 100% off the table.

And that would at least make poor Marinette feel better…

-

Fang didn’t get to watch the akuma battle, trapped up here like this. Only once it was all over and Ladybug’s magic had delivered him back to the Dupain-Cheng household did he quickly check the Ladyblog to figure out what had been going on.

Weredad was the akuma’s name, apparently. And yep – it had definitely been Tom. Oh, the poor guy.

Fang went back up the stairs and into the living room, apologies at the ready. Being responsible for getting people akumatized did not feel good – if anything, it just made him feel a bit like Chloé Bourgeois.

But he didn’t get the chance. Tom wrapped him in a big bear hug the second he had walked into the room. “Fang, I’m so sorry about getting akumatized and attacking you! That wasn’t your fault at all!”

True! It wasn’t! Thank goodness Tom had calmed down.

All the same…

“I’m sorry I can’t stay longer,” Fang said, genuinely meaning it. “And… I’m sorry for making Marinette upset…”

“That’s okay!” came a voice from behind them.

Fang jumped out of the hug to see that Marinette was coming down the stairs from her room, smiling sweetly at him. Her eyes were still a little red – probably from crying earlier.

But she was feeling better now! Phew. That put his mind at ease.

“It’s not your fault you need to leave,” Tom said to him now, putting an encouraging hand on his shoulder. “Go live your life and protect the planet with your friends. Our Marinette is super strong, she’ll heal, she can be happy with someone else too…”

Happy with someone else… wait, what???

“I wasn’t going to break up with her!” Fang said. “I like her loads! I was… I was just thinking I could video call her every day, and come and visit often, and… uh, I mean, if Marinette’s okay with that?”

He turned to look at her, and she nodded happily.

“That would be perfect!” she said, beaming at him. “And I’ll be fine, I promise. You don’t need to worry about me. It just… it just caught me by surprise, that’s all.”

Tom now had a huge smile on his face too. “Ah, I’m so glad! Come here, everyone!”

He pulled them both into a hug, which Sabine quickly joined in.

Fang didn’t usually like hugs much, unless they were from Marinette of course. But this? Family hugs with the Dupain-Chengs? This wasn’t so bad.

-

Marinette walked Fang downstairs to see him off. She definitely looked in a much better mood now. The idea of having to leave her was still a painful one, but…

“I might ask Kaizo if I can stay here,” he said. “I mean… I’m… considering it. Maybe. I don’t know yet and I don’t even know if he would let me, but…”

Marinette’s eyes lit up. “Really? You want to stay?”

“Of course! This… this stupid city needs someone with actual brain cells living in it.”

“So like me?” she said, winking at him.

“Alright fine, it needs two people with brain cells!”

She giggled. “Well I’ll obviously be very happy if you do decide to stay. But I understand if you want to go back to your friends, too.”

His friends… he adored his friends, of course he did. But he had friends here too. Alya, Nino, Adrien, even some of the other classmates, when they weren’t getting on his nerves…

Staying in Paris was seeming more and more tempting with every passing second. Especially with the way Marinette was smiling at him right now, with so much warmth and affection, like there was no one else she would rather be with.

There was a bit of an awkward silence. He was meant to go back to the hotel before it got too late, but… was she expecting him to kiss her first? It would be nice, but of course, after trying it yesterday on the Eiffel Tower, he’d realized he had no idea what he was doing. Sure, he had already been daydreaming about kissing Marinette all the time for weeks. But he’d never really thought about the logistics of actually doing it!

Luckily Marinette didn’t seem to be suffering the same misgivings. She went up on tiptoes and kissed him.

Alright, if he left Paris, he was going to miss this a lot. He couldn’t deny that. Even though he had no clue what he was doing.

Unfortunately, the things his friends had said to him earlier were coming to mind… all that stupid stuff about… French… kissing… and so…

Marinette stepped back in surprise. “Did you just…?”

Okay nope, that had been _weird_. He put his hands over his mouth, well-aware his face must be bright red. “My idiot friends told me to! Because you’re French!! And in English they call it…”

She had already started laughing. “I know what they call it!”

“Cool. It’s gross. No offence.”

Still laughing, she just hugged him. “You’re so cute, I love you. And you don’t have to make yourself be extra French if you don’t want to, you know.”

“I know…” He held her close, wishing moments like these could last forever. “I don’t want to leave.”

“You mean leave my house right now, or leave Paris in general?”

“Leave Paris! Of course I have to leave your house, I have to write the next chapter in the Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

“Can I read that one day?”

What? No way, of course she couldn’t read it! It would be way too embarrassing! It was bad enough knowing that an entire island-full of people were eagerly consuming every word of it, he couldn’t have all that ridiculous nonsense inflicted on his poor girlfriend too!

“Have I ever told you how much I love your hair?” he said quickly.

“Are you trying to distract me?”

“N-no… Also I think your Ladybug outfit needs a redesign! And um… how’s the hamster doing?”

She laughed again, finally letting go of him. “Fine, I won’t read it! But then you’re not allowed to ever read my diary, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Great! Now go write that chapter!”

He nodded. “Goodnight Marinette!”

Giving her a goodbye kiss on the cheek, he left. This was definitely going to be a bittersweet chapter – all Gopal’s loyal customer base were going to have to come to terms with the fact that their precious saga would be coming to an end soon.

Unless he really did decide to stay in Paris, that was…

-

Getting to design the costumes for Kitty Section was an honour for Marinette. What was absolutely _not_ an honour was having XY rip off those designs, along with Kitty Section’s aesthetic and music, and then pass it off as his own!

Marinette was livid. She and Luka had stormed into the TV tower and demanded that this plagiarism stop, but…

Bob Roth.

_That guy._

She already disliked him – she knew perfectly well how much he was constantly trying to screw over Jagged Stone. And now he was trying to screw over her friends too!

“Forget it Marinette, it’s no big deal,” Luka said, clearly just as upset as her about it, but chill enough to pull her away. “Let’s just go.”

She thought of how betrayed he must feel, how poor Rose and Juleka and Ivan must feel, seeing their song being stolen like this. She couldn’t let it slide, no matter what!

Striding up to Bob Roth, she pointed a finger at him. “If you won’t tell the truth then I WILL! Right now, on the air, live!”

She began going over to where the TV cameras were, only for Bob to grab her arm and hold her back. “If you do that, I’ll tell them _you’re_ the copycats, not me! I’ve got all the music biz eating out of my hand, so who do you think they’re gonna believe? Me, or a group of nobodies? They’ll never have a future in this business. You’ll never make another costume. And there’ll be no more music for your buddies, because as far as everyone’s concerned, YOU’LL be the rip-off artists!”

Seriously?! How was it possible for someone to be this _rude?!_

Marinette wrenched her arm out of his grasp, no idea what to do next. She turned to look at Luka – only to see that he was suddenly grinning.

“Marinette,” he said. “Call Fang.”

Oh…

Oh! Yes! Of course!

She turned back to Bob and waved her phone, her resolve strengthening. “If you don’t give due credit to Kitty Section and give them air time on your show, I will call up my boyfriend.”

Bob crossed his arms and laughed. “Hah! Why would a threat like that scare me?”

“Because my boyfriend is _Fang_ , maybe you’ve heard of him? Sidekick to Jagged Stone, aka the only musician in this city more popular than XY? Superhero alien? Frequently part of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s superhero team? Not only has superpowers himself, but also has connections to literal galactic space agencies? Younger brother of a feared and legendary space captain who never hesitates to violently beat people up? And–”

Bob’s eyes had been growing wider and wider all through her speech, and he hurriedly pushed her phone away. “Okay, okay, fine! I’ll do it! Just don’t call him, please!”

“That’s much better! I knew you’d see reason!”

A scowl on his face now, Bob turned around and headed back towards the cameras. “Alec, there’s been a change in plan…”

Phew! Thank goodness that had worked!

She went over to Luka and high fived him. “Heck yeah! Thanks for that!”

“Well thanks for sticking up for Kitty Section,” he replied. “It’s so nice having support. You know how Jules can be a bit… nervous with self-esteem, and all that… well I’m really glad we could avoid this kind of controversy.”

Of course. Luka was always looking out for Juleka. What must it feel like, having a little sibling? Having to take care of them and make sure they were alright? The age gap between Luka and Juleka was pretty small, but still, he did seem to act like a decent older brother all the time – when they weren’t busy meme-ing at each other and having conversations that were completely incomprehensible to anyone else, that was.

Unlike what Marinette had heard about Captain Kaizo, who wasn’t all that nice to poor Fang…

But would he allow Fang to stay in Paris? Maybe he would! Apparently he wasn’t _that_ bad these days.

Oh, it would just be so perfect if Fang could stay. Everything else was going perfectly these days. Aside from akuma attacks, of course. But even those were tolerable! For now, things were really looking up!

Kitty Section had got the coverage they deserved, Marinette’s family all seemed to adore Fang (even her _somewhat iffy_ grandfather, who was at least starting to warm up to the fact that his granddaughter was going out with a very much not white-looking alien), even if Fang did leave Paris he had promised to still talk to Marinette every day and visit frequently…

“You look very happy,” Luka noted.

“Oh! Do I?”

“Yes. I’m really glad for you!”

“And what about you?” she asked, aware that Luka had definitely had a bit of a crush on her in the past, and wondering how on earth he felt about it, considering that he tended to keep that sort of thing to himself.

But he gave her a genuine smile. “I’m in the city’s greatest up-and-coming band. Of course I’m happy!”

Well that was a weight off her mind! She trusted Luka to be truthful with her.

And with that, she turned to the TV screens to watch Bob’s grovelling apology. What sweet justice!

-

One of the things that had prevented Fang from truly believing he belonged here in Paris were the reactions of his classmates to him. It had taken a long time for them to finally warm up to him, and vice versa. That being said, they didn’t usually go out of their way to talk to him.

Until today…

_Yo, you have to come to the Louvre right now! This crazy thing just happened! -Alix_

Pffff, since when did Alix ever talk to him? He already knew she had picked the other emo in the class to make friends with instead. And honestly, what crazy thing? As far as Fang was aware, the latest akuma attack was just Mr Pigeon again, that poor guy. Hawk Moth never gave him a break.

All the same, curiosity getting the better of him, Fang left the hotel and went off towards the Louvre. The Parisian landmarks had been bugging him a lot less lately, to be fair. Marinette liked them, so why should he complain? The Louvre wasn’t all that bad.

Along the way, the streets were eerily silent, filled with strange kinds of graffiti. That certainly wasn’t Mr Pigeon’s doing – there must be another akuma attack going on right now then. Did it have something to do with whatever “crazy thing” Alix wanted to show him? She liked graffiti and street art, right?

He arrived at the courtyard outside the Louvre to see that Ladybug and Chat Noir were there, just having de-akumatized someone from the looks of it.

And there was also another hero!

Oh come on! Marinette had given yet another person a Miraculous? At least this one looked like an adult this time, so maybe they were a bit more competent than the usual idiot teens she would always entrust…

Alix, apparently having been stood on the side watching, spotted Fang and skated over to him immediately. “There you are! You missed all the fun!”

“What happened?”

She grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the new hero. “Look!”

The hero was taller than him, with dark red hair, and bunny ears pointing up off her head. It was pretty obvious which Miraculous she was using. Her weapon seemed to be an umbrella, and there was a bright portal opened up behind her, similar to one of Ochobot’s portals.

“So,” the hero said, looking down her nose at him, “Mini-me, I’m guessing this is that alien you were talking about?”

“Yes!” Alix said. “Do you remember him now?”

“Hmm. Nope.”

“Oh come on! Are you sure?”

Fang just looked between them, the similarities hitting him all of a sudden. “What do you mean _Mini-me?_ Alix, is this… is this YOU? From the future?”

The hero gave him a prod with her umbrella. “Very perceptive. I am indeed Bunnyx, from the future. My powers grant me the ability to travel through time and space at will. And I do vaguely remember this akuma attack happening, back when I was young, and that Minibug and Chaton Noir needed my future self’s help… but _you_ , I have no memory of whatsoever.”

“How do you just forget an entire alien?!” Alix scoffed. “Fang’s been in my class for ages! He’s helped save the city loads! He’s going out with Marinette!”

Bunnyx narrowed her eyes. “Really? Well no, I don’t remember him. I’ve never seen him before in my life.”

Ladybug’s earrings started beeping. “Uh I have to go, thanks for helping us Bunnyx! See you later!”

She whizzed off, and Chat gave them a wave and quickly went off in the other direction, his ring giving off warning beeps too.

Bunnyx just sighed and gave Fang a rather harsh glare. “I have to go back to my own time now, but I’m keeping an eye on you, because you most definitely weren’t there in my original timeline.”

“When is Ladybug going to give me my Miraculous?” Alix asked.

“When you’re as cool as me, Mini-me.” Bunnyx gave her younger self a much more cheerful look, then stepped into the portal and sealed it behind her.

Alix immediately turned to Fang. “I swear I won’t forget you when I grow up, okay? There has to be some other explanation for this!”

“Yeah, you’d better not forget me,” he said, crossing his arms.

“I don’t think anyone would be able to. You’re a real part of our class now. And everyone in the city knows who you are.”

That was surprisingly nice of her to say. It did cheer him up slightly – seeing that Alix would grow up to not only be tall and kind of hot, but _also_ get given the most absurdly overpowered Miraculous was threatening to set off his old jealousy issues again.

But she really believed he was a part of their class? For real?

“I’m not kidding,” she said, giving him a smile. “We’ll miss you when you leave!”

“Oh really? You’ll miss laughing at me?”

“No, you idiot! We’ll miss hanging out with you! …Well yeah, and also laughing at you.”

“Thanks,” he said, smiling back. “I’ll miss laughing at all of you guys too.”

“Marinette said your brother might let you stay here, is that true?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t asked him yet.”

“Well then ask him!” Alix gave him one of her friendly arm punches. “Oh man, I so have to tell Nath about all this… well I don’t know if I’m allowed, but I’ll tell him some of it. See you later Fang!”

She skated off back towards the Louvre. Fang had always pitied her for having to live inside that stupid building, but she didn’t seem to mind, and anyway, it probably wasn’t as bad as he’d originally thought.

And now…

Now would be a good time to decide whether he wanted to stay in Paris or not, wouldn’t it?

This wasn’t even just for Marinette. Of course he loved her, and wanted to spend more time with her. But it really was becoming apparent that the people of this city considered him _one of them_. He was truly a Parisian.

He would miss his old friends a lot if he stayed here. But he’d already been away from them for months at this point, right? It hadn’t been too bad. He could carry on calling them every day, and getting Ochobot to teleport him over for frequent visits. This was something he was already used to. It wasn’t like they’d need his help with whatever missions they were getting up to, not when they were all so overpowered…

The heroes of Paris didn’t need him either, but they _wanted_ him here. He had friends here. All his classmates. All his fans.

Marinette’s parents wanted him to stay too.

Everyone wanted him to stay.

In that case, there was one more person he needed to check with before asking Kaizo.

-

“Penny!” he said, running through the door. “Penny I have to ask you something!”

Penny had been taking a well-earned break, relaxing on the sofa, but quickly sat up and grabbed her clipboard when she heard his voice. “Yes, of course Fang! What is it?”

He went and sat beside her. “When the crocodile comes back, if I wanted to stay here in Paris too, would I be allowed?”

Her face broke into a huge smile. Putting the clipboard aside, she pulled him into a hug. “Of course you can stay! We’d be so happy to have you here!”

Whoa, did Penny really care this much? He’d had no idea!

Now she let go of him and started writing something down on the clipboard at top speed. “I can let the school know, and we can get your visa renewed, and perhaps buy you a new guitar of your own so you don’t have to keep borrowing Jagged’s…”

“What? I don’t know if I’m definitely staying yet! I haven’t asked Captain Kaizo if I’m allowed yet!”

“Oh, right! Well, if he does allow you to stay, I’m happy to make all the necessary arrangements.”

He vaguely wondered if those arrangements included adoption papers…

“Have you proposed to Jagged yet?” he asked now.

Penny’s face went red. “He’s been very busy promoting his new album…”

“Well I’ll ask Kaizo if I can stay, and you can ask Jagged to marry you.”

“Alright, alright.”

Excellent! Fang leapt up off the sofa and went to his room, pulling out his phone and closing the door behind him.

Right. Would it be best to call, or to send a message? Kaizo hated getting phone calls from Fang. Yeah, a message was probably a better idea.

He typed out something quick, and was about to hit send when–

“DON’T YOU DARE SEND THAT MESSAGE, YOU LITTLE PUNK!”

He jumped back in shock and dropped his phone. Looking up, a portal had opened up in front of him and out strode Bunnyx, looking absolutely furious.

“Bunnyx? What the–”

“I _knew_ there was a reason I didn’t remember you!” she snapped, pointing her umbrella at him threateningly. “It’s because you’re not supposed to be here, that’s why! And now your presence here is fucking up the timeline in the future because you were never supposed to come to Paris in the first place!”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”

She jabbed him with the umbrella so hard that he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. “You are giving me such a headache, you know that? But I guess it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m gonna go back in time and make sure you never even set foot in Paris, so that the timeline is restored to WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE. I just wanted to come and yell at you about it first, because _man_ , I really hate having to fix apocalypses. They’re so freaking depressing. This is pure stress-relief.”

Apocalypses? Timelines?? What was she talking about???

He noticed with alarm that she was heading back towards the portal. “Wait! What are you doing?!”

She turned back to him, giving him a lazy salute. “Bye Fang! Enjoy your last moments in Paris before you forget this all ever happened!”

Everything she had just said was taking several seconds to sink in – she had almost gone through when it hit him.

She was about to go back in time and reset the timeline.

_She was about to erase everything._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alix Kubdel is my favourite character and I write about her very frequently. I think this is the first time I have ever, EVER had her be the villain.


	17. Chapter 17

Panicking, Fang summoned a shadow dragon without even thinking. “Stop! Stop right there! Don’t go!”

Bunnyx had half a foot already in the portal. “Seriously dude, you think I’m scared of a dragon? I literally fought a dinosaur earlier today. Well okay, about 70 million years ago technically. But you get what I mean.”

“Explain to me what’s going on _right now_ or I’ll burn you to a crisp!”

For a few seconds he stared her down. Finally she sighed, rolling her eyes and stepping out of the portal again.

“Okay, FINE. Just because I want to vent, and you’re gonna forget soon anyway.”

She took a few steps towards him, though still made no move to close the portal.

“Fang, the reason I don’t remember you is because in my original timeline, you never came to Paris. You hung out in Malaysia and space with your friends, I was here in Paris with mine, Marinette never met you, Jagged Stone kept his crocodile the whole time, and everything was fine. But now I’ve seen that there’s a disturbance in the timestream. And it’s YOU.”

Umbrella out again, she pointed at him rather menacingly – so very un-Alix-like.

“The timeline changed because you came to Paris, and now it’s rippling through the rest of time in a way that’s too complex for your stupid tiny mind to understand, and guess what? This is a BAD TIMELINE. Your presence here causes the apocalypse, and it’s my job to fix it.”

“What? How is it my fault?”

“Why do you care? I’m about to stop it happening anyway.”

“And… and I won’t remember any of this?”

“Nope.”

More panic was setting in now. “Will I ever get to see Marinette again?”

Bunnyx shrugged. “No idea. Maybe your paths cross naturally at some point in the future, maybe they don’t. But she sure as hell won’t fall in love with you this time. She was supposed to be with Adrien, dammit! Well Luka first, but like…”

Now she had started going back towards the portal again, and Fang’s heart skipped several beats in terror. “Wait! Stop! You… you can’t do that!”

She turned back to him, a surprisingly harsh look on her face. “Do you think I haven’t done this kind of thing before? I’ve broken up plenty of couples, I’ve destroyed plenty of hearts, I’ve seen so much shit that no one will ever know about, okay? Do you think this is _easy_ for me, Fang?! Having to wreck people’s lives all the time, erase all their achievements and get rid of their happiness?!! But I have to do it! Because the alternative is the freaking APOCALYPSE!”

Half of Fang’s brain seemed to have shut down in shock. He tried to think of something, _anything_ at all. It was clear that Bunnyx wasn’t happy about having to erase this timeline, right?

“What apocalypse?” he asked. “How does it happen? How do I avoid it? Please just give me some time to understand, before you reset everything…”

The harsh look did not leave her face, but all the same she slowly lowered her umbrella, then went and took a seat beside him.

“There’s something you have to understand about time travel,” she said. “A thing that they call ‘the butterfly effect’.”

“I know what that is.”

“Good. You’ve actually done a glorious job at averting it so far, I’m pretty impressed. But that won’t last long. Right now, this timeline is quite similar to my original timeline – aside from the fact that you’re here, obviously. That’ll start changing very soon. Because the thing about my original timeline is… it’s _unbelievable_ odds. The fact that it works, and that everything turns out okay, is just… even one-in-a-million isn’t anywhere close to describing it. It’s balancing on a thread. Even the tiniest variations will cause untold amounts of horror and calamity for unimaginable numbers of people. It’s the best outcome, and I’m responsible for keeping it walking that very fine line and making sure it stays that way.”

Really? His laid-back classmate Alix Kubdel would grow up to be the person holding the entire world on her shoulders?

“As for you,” she continued, “there are villains out there far more powerful than any you’ve ever faced. And your little superhero friend Boboiboy is incredibly powerful too, but he can’t be at his 100% all the time. There are times when he has to rely on his friends.”

“Pfff, I know that.”

“ALL his friends. All five of you. Together.”

Oh… really?

“I don’t want to give away all the details, but… I’ve checked all the variables. There are many, _many_ scenarios in your future where you have to be there. All five of you. Otherwise you’ll fail, and the consequences are too catastrophic to even describe. You think losing the lives of the 7 billion people on this planet would be bad? Hah, the disasters in your future if you continue here will far, FAR outweigh that. And I’ve witnessed it with my own eyes. The natural state of the universe is chaos. It takes a lot of effort on my behalf to get it back on track and protect people’s lives.”

How horrifying…

Fang tried to make sense of it in his brain. “So you have to make it that I never came here in the first place, or else billions of people will die?”

“Nope, _decillions_ of people will die.”

“Is that even a number?!”

“It’s like ten-illion.”

Ten-illion! That was just insane!

Surely this couldn’t be happening. Maybe this was just a nightmare, another Sandboy-style akuma attack or something. Fang gave himself a hard pinch in the arm.

“Sorry, I’m real,” Bunnyx said to him. “You’re not dreaming. And don’t you dare start crying on me.”

He held back his tears – how did she know? Well, everything she was telling him was unbelievably depressing, and evidently she had done this kind of thing before, so that probably gave her a good idea…

“…Can I at least say goodbye to Marinette?” he asked.

“What’s the point? You’re gonna forget all this anyway. The only ones with a ripple-proof memory are me and my kwami, and even then it’s not guaranteed. So honestly it’s just better I get it over and done with. I’ve already dawdled here long enough.”

She started to stand up, but Fang quickly grabbed onto her arm. “Hang on a second!”

“Ugh, what now??? Are you stalling for time? It’s useless, you know. _I am inevitable_ and all that.” She clicked her fingers. It was wild seeing her so blasé about this whole thing, so chill despite the horrors she was talking about.

“How do you even cope? Seeing all these bad timelines and having to erase everything?”

To his surprise, she started laughing. “You think I cope? No one can truly cope with this! That’s why the Bunny Miraculous is _always_ the last resort, when everything else has failed. When there’s no other way to avert the apocalypse. You know, like right now.”

Oh…

Why did the world have to be like this? How was it possibly fair that him getting to meet Marinette would lead to the worst timeline?!

But what could he even do about it? Bunnyx was right – it was useless. The looming sense of panic and dread was giving way to gloom and despair. There was almost no point even trying.

All the same, he couldn’t just give up now.

“When do these apocalyptic things happen?” he asked.

“Hah, I’m not telling you that. Anyway, why do you even care?”

“Couldn’t I just leave Paris that time instead? And go back to my other friends and help them stop the apocalypse? And then I’ll stay out there with them to prevent future apocalypses, and that way you won’t have to erase the whole timeline!”

She frowned at him. “Well I would have considered that, but you just had to go fall in love with Marinette, didn’t you? Now you won’t let her go – even if you go back to your old friends again, you’ll keep coming back to Paris to visit her, and chances are you’ll be here when you shouldn’t be, and BAM – apocalypse again. I don’t trust you not to be a lovestruck idiot when you’re not supposed to be. It’s way too risky.”

“I won’t!” he insisted. “I’ll be responsible, I’ll only visit when it’s safe, and I’ll make sure I can easily be teleported back if I need to, and–”

“You mean like you did on Heroes’ Day?” she snapped. “Yes, I know about that. You couldn’t help Ladybug because you went over to Malaysia on a whim, and you’re lucky she didn’t actually need you. You won’t be so lucky the other way round next time, I can assure you. You’ve failed in dividing your responsibilities already.”

“But that’s different! I was just being a stupid petty brat that time, I wasn’t actually trying to be responsible! But from now on I’ll try, I swear.”

“Yeah, right. You really think it’s that easy to balance your life in multiple places like that?”

Why didn’t she believe in him? He could do this! “I’m not as useless as you think I am, okay?”

“I don’t think you’re useless. I already told you your friends will need you in the future, didn’t I? Just not your Parisian friends, that’s all. And you’re not going to convince me, so stop trying!”

This time she stood up and started walking back towards the portal.

No! It wasn’t going to end like this! He couldn’t just forget about everything that had happened to him here!

“If Marinette can balance her secret life as Ladybug then I can do this!” he said. “I have to! I have to do it for her…”

Bunnyx just laughed again. “You have to ‘do it for her’, huh? Listen, she’ll be plenty happy with Adrien too, okay? It’s a bit more of a mess there, sure, but seriously. This is the riskiest plan ever. I don’t think you understand just how much of a risk it is. It’s not worth it.”

“Yes it is! I can do it! I’ll do anything, I promise, just please don’t let me and Marinette forget about each other! I’d give up popularity for her, I’d even give up carrots for her… I’d do anything, I swear…”

For what felt like an entire full minute, Bunnyx remained silent in thought. It was the longest minute of Fang’s life. Memories of his time in Paris kept running through his brain, like a final reminder before they would be forcibly taken away from him. And he had tried everything to convince Bunnyx not to do this, to believe in him, to leave him be and not erase the best 8 months of his life…

Was it enough?

Or was it going to end in failure, just like everything else in his stupid life always did?

After an eternity, Bunnyx folded her arms and spoke.

“You are such a Parisian now, aren’t you? Dramatically declaring you’d do literally anything just for this one girl you happen to like, I can practically hear the accordions… am I seriously the only person in this city who didn’t end up like that?! You’re all crazy. _However_ …”

She exhaled, a smile returning to her face.

“…fine. FINE. For now, you’ve convinced me. I won’t reset the timeline.”

Yes! _Yes!_

The relief that hit him was enough to make him dizzy. Everything was going to be okay! He was going to keep his memories after all!

He leapt to his feet, his heart much lighter. “Thank you so much!!! I won’t let you down!”

The smile vanished from her face and she suddenly jabbed her umbrella straight at his chest again, giving him one of the iciest looks he had ever seen. “But Fang. You listen to me _very carefully_ right now. Are you listening?”

He nodded.

“Good. You only get ONE SHOT at this. That is IT. That’s all I’m giving you. I am not going to go around fixing all your messes for you if you get this balance wrong and end up with entire star systems dying because you were too busy canoodling with your girl in Paris to go help. One strike and you’re out. I will not hesitate next time to reset the timeline COMPLETELY, and then that’s it for Mr Fang Dupain-Cheng. You hear me? This is your one chance. Make it count.”

Fang had heard tales of Timebreaker, the horrendously terrifying villain that Alix had been akumatized into before he had ever been to Paris. To him, it was absurd that his classmates could ever be afraid of someone like Alix Kubdel.

But right now? The way she was glowering? The way her words were cutting into him like knives?

Oh, he was very much afraid.

“I will,” he said.

“Good. I literally never do this, I’m usually ruthless with resetting bad timelines. But I’m getting sick of always being treated like the bad guy when I’m only doing my job. So just this once, I’m letting you off. You have about a one-in-septillion chance of getting this right, so good luck. You’ll need it.”

“Thanks…”

She leaned in close. “And remember. If you mess up even once, _I will reset. And next time I won’t warn you first.”_

With that, she shoved him away and went off towards the still-open portal. She paused and turned back to him once more just as she was about to go through.

“You can stay here in Paris until your brother comes to pick you up, and then you can begin your balancing act. I hope it works out for you.”

She made her exit without another word. The portal closed up behind her.

_Phew._

Fang let out a sigh of relief. Finally, she was gone, and he could take a moment to relax and just breathe.

No more sudden fear that she would reset the timeline at any moment. For now, he was safe.

For now, he still had his memories of Paris. And he still had Marinette.

It was going to be okay.

Still full of frightened adrenaline, Fang picked up his phone from the floor and deleted the message. Looked like he would definitely have to leave Paris, no matter how much he wanted to stay. There was no point telling Kaizo about any of this.

But there certainly was a point in telling Marinette!

He rushed out of the door, heading straight past poor confused Penny – he could always come back and explain later. Right now there was only one person he wanted to see.

-

The second Marinette had pulled him up onto her balcony, he glomped her in a hug. The fear of losing her was still all too fresh in his mind.

“Fang, what happened?” she said, surprised. “Are you… crying?”

“B-BUNNYX ALMOST RESET THE TIMELINE!”

“What? What are you talking about?!”

How could he possibly explain? Just being here with Marinette, holding her in his arms, knowing she was here with him and _real_ , it made everything that had just happened so much more terrifying. How could he even put it into words?

Taking a deep breath, he at least tried to tell her, and tried not to sound like too much of a drama queen as he did it. Technically he hadn’t had to fight Bunnyx, or anything heroic or spectacular like that. The fact that he had _changed the mind of the lord of time and space herself_ was suddenly seeming a lot less awe-inspiring, when all it had really been was a somewhat heated conversation and nothing else.

All the way through he did not let go of her – somehow feeling like if he did, she might just disintegrate and float away before his very eyes without him being able to do a thing about it.

He was definitely going to end up having nightmares about it, he could just tell…

And the worst part was, it was beginning to hit him.

_A one-in-septillion chance._

That was all he had to get it right. 1 single chance out of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

If he couldn’t do it, he would lose Marinette forever and wouldn’t even know.

“What am I supposed to do?!” he said, starting to wonder if burdening poor Marinette with this knowledge too had been a bad idea. “Bunnyx said it’s a huge risk! I’m not allowed to make a single mistake, or everyone will die and she’ll have to reset everything!”

Marinette, to her credit, was taking the news surprisingly well. “Wow… I never knew we’d end up this star-crossed…”

“I know, right? Why is it always so unfair? I finally find someone perfect for me, and now the whole universe is literally conspiring against me and trying to destroy itself just to prevent me from being happy!”

“Yes… but…”

She was doing that _Ladybug_ thing, where she frowned in thought, her eyes darting from side to side, trying to make sense of the situation around her and come to some kind of solution.

“Bunnyx gave you this warning, and you can use it,” she said after some seconds of thought. “She told you that you and all your friends will need to be together during future battles, right? And now you know how important that is. She didn’t say that the apocalypses would start here in Paris. She said they’d start on _your_ end of things.”

“Yes, so?”

Her eyes were sparkling now – evidently she’d figured out the solution, whatever it was.

“So it means that in the future, there doesn’t seem to be any risk in me coming to visit you. The risk is you coming back to Paris and not being in space when needed. We can use this! If you want to see me, I can always be teleported out to you! And if you ever feel like visiting Paris, take an aeroplane or spaceship and make sure Ochobot is always charged and ready to teleport you back in a moment’s notice. And only do it rarely, during times of peace. We just need to make sure that there’s always an escape plan.”

Fang just stared at her. How was it possible for her to think about it so rationally? So optimistically? How on earth was this brilliant girlfriend of his even in the same league as him?!

“I think Master Fu once mentioned that there’s a Miraculous that can teleport people too,” she said now, starting to smile. “Aside from the bunny, I mean. We could always use that too if everything else fails! Yes – there’s always a solution!”

“You really think so?”

“Of course! If I can manage to defeat every akuma villain so far, you can definitely balance your life! I know you can do it! I believe in you! Just…” She gave his cheek a stroke, flashing him that sunny Marinette smile. “…don’t impulsively teleport here to see me on a whim, okay?”

The only thing he wanted to impulsively do right now was kiss her senseless, but he was distracted by a crunching sound over in the corner of the balcony. Turning to look, he saw Tikki floating there in mid-air, watching them, munching on a cookie.

“Would you prefer it if I left you two alone?” she said.

Gulping down all his idiot teenage romance thoughts, Fang shook his head. “Can I ask you for um… kwami advice? Since you’re immortal? What do you think I should do?”

Tikki took another bite of her cookie, chewing thoughtfully before answering. “I think Marinette is right. Modern humans and aliens have all kinds of wonderful technology for staying connected across vast distances, and you should make good use of that! As long as you have a way of quickly teleporting to where you need to be, I think you’ll be just fine.”

It was such a relief to hear Tikki, one of the oldest beings to ever exist, telling him that she really believed he could do this. Getting this kind of encouragement was surprisingly rare. And Tikki was no liar – if she said it, she really did believe it.

“One-in-septillion may not even be accurate,” she continued. “Those were the original chances – the chances you would have had, had Bunnyx not told you about how careful you need to be. But now you’ve had her warning, and you’ll be much more careful in the future. I’m sure that’ll boost your chances significantly!”

“You can do this!” Marinette said.

“We’re always here to help and give advice!”

“And I’m sure your other friends will be supportive too!”

“We’ll all help!”

“And it was really sweet of you to persuade Bunnyx to let you have this chance in the first place, Alix can be pretty stubborn so you must have made quite an impact…”

They were just being so nice to him! Completely unused to such open support, he had no idea what to even do. It was a lot easier to know what to say when people were mocking him instead.

“So now that your mind is more at rest,” Tikki said, “I’ll let you enjoy your remaining time with Marinette. I’ve got some new playlists I need to check out anyway, and some more cookies to eat, and I have to go play with the hamster, and…”

Without waiting for a response, Tikki zoomed over to the trapdoor and down into Marinette’s room, leaving Fang and Marinette alone on the balcony.

Well, what now? All his adrenaline from earlier was still there. Except now it had morphed into the much more pleasant, stupid crushy nervous adrenaline that filled him whenever Marinette was being particularly awesome. Oh wait – Marinette was _always_ being awesome.

She herself was going pink now. “So um… when you’re over on the other side of the world, or in space, I’ll still be able to talk to you as much as I want, right?”

“Yeah, of course. Call anytime.”

“Good! But… I won’t be able to… uh, I mean, we should make the most of you still being in Paris, so… um… Super Penguino? Hehe…”

It was funny how Marinette could sometimes be so smart, so confident, so well-spoken, the Ladybug side of her shining through.

And it was even funnier when she was just being a completely ditzy dork, like right now.

Incredibly cute, too…

Not even bothering to say anything, he pulled her in close and kissed her deeply. She melted right in his arms – it hadn’t been like this before. All those hesitant nerves were gone. Threading his fingers through her gorgeous, silky hair, he ignored all those _I have no idea what I’m doing_ thoughts his brain was trying to throw at him and reminded himself that it didn’t matter, all that mattered was that Marinette liked him, and she believed in him.

Everything truly was going to be okay in the end.

Wow… how could he have known, almost 8 months ago when first meeting Marinette, that some day he’d make out with her on her balcony like some stereotypical Parisian?

Huh, maybe after this he could take her for ice cream at André’s. That would be even more Parisian! And since he didn’t have too long left in Paris, the more Parisian he could be, the better.

-

The second the crocodile stepped out of the spaceship and onto the airport runway, Jagged Stone ran over to it in slow motion and then scooped it up off its feet, hugging it tightly.

“FANG! My crocodile! I’ve missed you so much, my friend! We have so much to talk about!”

Alien Fang, standing there watching, tried not to let the rage overwhelm him on seeing that stupid reptile right here in front of his eyes. Annoying crocodile, stealing all his popularity…

Captain Kaizo stepped out of the spaceship a few seconds later. Naturally, he did not have any kind of dramatic reunion. He simply walked over to Fang and looked down at him with the usual expression of mild distaste.

“You’ve completed your mission. Have you made your choice on whether to leave the magic jewellery with these French superheroes or not?”

“Yes Captain,” Fang replied. “I’ll leave it with them. They’re perfectly capable of taking care of Paris with their powers.”

It was true – Ladybug and Chat Noir really did make an amazing team, and same with the others who they occasionally recruited to help. Paris was in safe hands.

“And now for your other choice,” Kaizo said, glancing over at Marinette. “I know you’ve grown attached to this city. Are you staying here?”

Oh? So Kaizo really would have allowed him to stay? That was… surprisingly nice.

But it couldn’t be.

“No, Captain. I’m going back to Malaysia and re-joining my old friends.”

“Are you sure? I read the novel your friend compiled about your life here, I know the people here consider you one of them. And in case you were worried, I approve of your girlfriend.”

Kaizo had read the Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng??? Ugh, that was embarrassing…

But Fang had not yet sent the most recent update. To have to tell everyone about what Bunnyx told him, that this entire timeline was hanging on a thread, and for now that thread was _him_ …

Maybe it was best to keep that part a secret. Or at least wait until he could tell the rest of his friends in person. It wasn’t something that he wanted spreading around.

“I’m sure,” he replied. “I’m going back to Malaysia. I can always visit Paris again later.”

“Fine then. Say your goodbyes and get in the spaceship. And I know I said I approve, but _please_ don’t start snogging Marinette in front of me. I’m giving you 30 seconds of goodbye-time per person. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Typical Kaizo. Obviously Fang had known that anyway, and had already said his proper goodbyes to everyone before the spaceship had arrived. His classmates at school, his fanclub, Marinette’s parents, Marinette herself…

He went over to her, making sure to keep a Kaizo-approved distance away from her for now. “So yeah… bye.”

As sad as she must be, she was still smiling. “It’s not much of a goodbye, is it? I know you’ll be video calling me from the spaceship before you even get to Malaysia.”

“Well obviously! What else am I supposed to do on that spaceship ride, talk to Kaizo? No way!”

Giggling, she gave him a quick hug. The dramatic and teary and heartfelt goodbyes had already been done earlier, well away from Kaizo, so for now this was all they needed.

And it was true, wasn’t it? It wasn’t that much of a goodbye. More of a “see you later”.

His 30 seconds of goodbye-time with Penny and Jagged was hugs too, telling him that they’d invite him to their wedding, and to tell all his friends to buy Jagged’s new album. The whole while, that crocodile was standing there barely a metre away from Fang, wagging its little tail, getting on his nerves with its entire existence…

All the same, he gulped down his rage and then crouched down and gave it a stroke.

“Thanks for being the reason I could come to Paris in the first place,” he whispered to it.

It just grinned at him in reply.

This crocodile… _Fang_ the crocodile… had it enjoyed its time in Malaysia? Would it miss its new friends there? Its classmates? Even its enemies, like Adu Du and Probe? Maybe it could go back and visit on occasion. Perhaps whenever Marinette went to visit.

“Time’s up,” said Kaizo. “Let’s go.”

Fang stood back up and walked over to the spaceship, trying not to let his heart sink too much. Paris truly was a special place to him now. But he would get to see it again someday – this wasn’t the end.

Maybe one day, a decade down the line, he could be here eating red carrot wedding cake, in an outfit Marinette had designed, with a new surname and family to call his own…

And with that very cheesy thought in his head, he stepped into the spaceship.

Kaizo had barely closed the door when a portal suddenly opened up, and out stormed Bunnyx.

Not again! What the fuck did she want _now???_

But to Fang’s shock, she ignored him completely. Instead she whipped her umbrella round and smacked Kaizo right across the face with it.

“So this whole mess is YOUR fault! I’m not the bad guy here, it’s YOU for abandoning your little brother here and trading him for a crocodile in the first place! That’s what made the timeline change! Do you know how many problems this has caused? How many catastrophes I’ve had to avert? How much stress your brother is currently under to get everything 100% right? How much stress _I’ve_ been under??? Pardon my French but _fuck you, Kaizo.”_

Without waiting for a response, she went back inside the portal and snapped it shut behind her.

For several seconds Kaizo just stared at the spot the portal had been, not saying a word.

Then he slowly turned to Fang. “What… what was that?!”

“A long story,” Fang said, trying to hold back a laugh. It had been a very long time since he’d ever seen someone just deck his brother in the face like that, and it was surprisingly satisfying to watch. Especially knowing that the person who had done it was Alix flipping Kubdel, out of all people.

“Tell me this long story on the way.”

“Um, okay…”

Kaizo made his way over to the pilot seat. Just before sitting down, he stopped and turned to look back at Fang. “Your new jacket is a lot better than your old one.”

Fang did not answer immediately. It was unusual for Kaizo to give him a sincere compliment. But there was no insult to follow it this time – apparently Kaizo had meant what he’d said.

“Thanks,” he replied. “Marinette made it for me.”

“Do you think she would agree to make a new one for me? Manramen has been… very annoying about my current fashion, shall we say.”

Manramen? That noodle-head? As if he was anyone to talk!

“I think she would,” Fang said, grinning. “I can ask her right now, if you want.”

“At least wait 5 minutes before calling her! You literally saw her about 30 seconds ago!”

“Fine, fine…”

Why was Kaizo being more agreeable than usual today? Was it possible he had… maybe… been missing Fang? Missing his dear little brother, having not seen him for months on end?

Well, whatever it was, Fang wasn’t complaining. He went and sat down in the seat beside Kaizo, not dreading this flight as much as he had been before. Things were really looking up. Kaizo and Marinette being on good terms… oh yes.

Things were very much looking up.

-

Down on the runway, Marinette watched the spaceship take off into the air. A little piece of her heart went with it – she sure was going to miss Fang’s constant presence. But she would make do. And at least for her, it was just one person leaving. All her other friends and family were still here with her. Poor Fang was leaving an entire city full of people he had come to know and love! That must feel a lot worse.

But at least he would get to see his old friends again. There were positives to every situation.

“Excuse me, Marinette?” Penny walked over and thrust a stack of papers into her hands. “Fang asked me to give this to you. I was under strict instructions to only do it once he’s left. He seemed quite embarrassed about it.”

“What is this?!”

“The Saga of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Whoa, really?! He was actually letting her read it?

“He also told me to ask you to make sure the Fangclub stays up and running in his absence. And to ensure that he remains more popular than the crocodile.”

Marinette couldn’t help but laugh. As sweet as Fang was with her these days, he would never really grow out of his obsession with popularity, would he? But by this point she didn’t mind at all. He was an idiot, but he was _her_ idiot.

“You know,” Penny said, staring off into the sky with a smile, “I’m really going to miss him.”

“Yeah, me too…”

She turned to look at the distant spaceship. Would she get to go on one of those, one day? Most likely she would. Having an alien boyfriend meant that she would probably get to visit all sorts of interesting places that humans didn’t usually get to. Meet all sorts of interesting people. See all sorts of interesting tech.

Yes… the more Marinette thought about it, the more she could find to love about the fact that he couldn’t stay in Paris with her. It meant that her own adventures wouldn’t just be limited to this city. They simply wouldn’t have a limit.

Maybe, once things were sorted with Hawk Moth here, she could go on space adventures with him! Wouldn’t that be so cool? There was no telling what kind of things she would end up doing! Where she would end up going!

For now, her place was down here on Earth, here in the city of Paris.

But who knew what the future would bring?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I didn't realize I'd end up taking this cracky idea so seriously and churn out a 90k word fic about it.
> 
> To everyone who's been reading this, thank you! I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I'm surprised to find how much fun I had writing this crossover, how many more Fanginette AU ideas I accidentally have (oops), how much I lowkey want to write a fic about the croc's time in Malaysia now.
> 
> I think writing this thing has genuinely kept my spirits up during quarantine - I've had some difficult and depressing irl things to deal with re the current world events, but thinking about this story always cheers me up. So if anyone else is having a tough time right now too, for whatever reason, I hope this could cheer you up at least a little <3


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